Our Campaigns: The Second Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteers, 1861-1864 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS263 justice so long meted out to them by the Government" (155). He was not the only one to make such an observation. Importantly, the men of the 55th soldiered on because they were aware of the high stakes and the sacred nature of their cause. Again Trotter observed the spirit of his comrades, noting that they endured the ingratitude of their nation because they had a patience inspired "by the great Jehovah, who will not suffer this war to end until every trace of Slavery is gone" (72). Certainly, other authors and editors have covered these topics. Consequently, the general concerns ofthe letters presented here will be well-known to historians . Nevertheless, there is something to be said for having a volume that focuses its attention on one regiment's history. Furthermore, the editor has given the regiment a human face by including not only the letters of common farmers and tradesmen but also more than the usual number ofphotographic portraits of the men and their officers. In the end, a volume such as this one is worth reading because it clearly shows how the lives of ordinary individuals like John Posey intersected with the extraordinary events ofAmerica's great crisis. Paul A. Cimbala Fordham University Our Campaigns: The SecondRegiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteers, 18611864 . Edited by Stanley W. Zamonski. (Shippensburg, Pa.: Burd Street Press, 199?. Pp. xii, 305. $17.99.) During the spring and summer of 1861, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania organized thirteen regiments that were designated Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteers . In time, the units were incorporated into a division in the Army of the Potomac, serving under such generals as George McCaIl, John Reynolds, George Meade, and Samuel Crawford. Until their disbandment three years later, the regiments compiled one of the army's finest combat records. Companies from the Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Altoona-Huntingdon areas comprised the 2d Pennsylvania Reserves. After receiving rudimentary training at Camp Washington, near Easton, the members of the 2d traveled to Washington , D.C., arriving in the wake of the Union defeat at First Bull Run. Drilling and routine marked the fall of 1 86 1 and the winter of 1 862. With the other units of the Army ofthe Potomac, the regiment participated in the Peninsula campaign. The 2d had been engaged at the Battle of Dranesville on December 20, 1 861 , incurring some casualties, but its real introduction to the war's bloody combat came at Mechanicsville on June 26, 1862. It was only a beginning for Gaines' Mill, Glendale, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness followed, ending at Spotsylvania Court House. In the two-year span the 2d lost eighty-seven killed and 187 wounded. Within a year of the 2d's disbandment, Evan M. Woodward, former officer in the 2d Pennsylvania Reserves, penned a solid history of the unit that was 264CIVIL WAR HISTORY published in 1865. The result was a book that has a freshness of memory not always evident in other regimental histories. Woodward was in a position to chronicle the unit's history, serving as a captain and later as regimental adjutant. During the war, he kept a journal and submitted articles to a local newspaper. Utilizing these materials and reports of commanding officers, Woodward authored a history that was notably accurate and filled with incidents, insights, and opinions. He was a good writer, willing both to praise and criticize superior officers. While not all hisjudgments remain valid, he had it right many times. This new edition is not just a reprint of the original work. Editor Stanley W Zamonski has enhanced Woodward's account with appendices that include a list of casualties for each battle, a regimental roster, a chronicle of marches and bivouacs, and an index. The editor could have further added to the new edition with an introductory essay on Woodward's life. The seemingly unabating publication of Civil War books in recent years has included the reprinting ofrare and expensive unit histories.These efforts have made available to students and historians many fine works at reasonable prices. Woodward 's Our Campaigns is one ofthese books, and this new edition is most welcome. Jeffry D. Wert Penns Valley...