Customer Reviews

Memoirs of the 149th Regt. N. Y. Vol. Inft., 3d Brig., 2d Div., 12th and 20th A.C

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lt. George Collins, who was a lawyer after the war, detailed the history of the 149th. From the time they were mustered in until the Grand Review and their subsequent home coming in Syracuse, Lt. Collins gives a wonderful dialogue of the 149th's adventures and hardships, including their time at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and Atlanta.

I bought this book because I recently learned that a book existed about my great-grandfather's Civil War regiment. I paid a lot for it, and was a bit disappointed to find it was a recent re-issue and not the original 1890's edition. Nevertheless, a very nice copy, and I read every word, gave it to my son, and will pass it around to siblings and cousins who are interested.
The main insight I gained was into the incredible hardship the soldier's bore, and apparently bore stoically. The reason I refer to "special interest" is that the book will probably mean much more to readers with a connection to the 149th, or to Central New York, where it orginated.For those readers, I expect that it will do what it did for me, which is to telescope the distance between ancestors, ancestral places, and the here and now.
The writing is neither better or worse than you would expect from an educated amateur Victorian author. My main gripe is too much attention to officers, and almost none to enlisted individuals.
For a better description of a Civil War soldier's life by a Civil War veteran, read Coffee and Hardtack, by John D. Billings, available in inexpensive paperback.