Customer Reviews

The Mutinous Regiment: The Thirty-third New Jersey In The Civil War

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I purchased this book because two of my ancestors were volunteers in the Thirty-Third. The book is well researched, highly detailed and provides an interesting glimpse into the experience of Civil War soldiers. However, it is long on verbiage and would have benefited from more illustrations to help explain troop positions and movement in battle. I would recommend it to someone like myself, who has a family connection to the Thirty-Third. Reading the book is like going on a pilgrimage.

John Zinn has produced a readable and useful history of a New Jersey regiment that was raised during the 1863 draft riots, was sent to the front under guard, served in the Eleventh and Twentieth Corps in Sherman's army, and marched to the sea. The title refers to one quarter of the men deserting the unit, mostly while the regiment was being organized in New Jersey. State and local bounties being paid in full led to a rash of bounty jumpers and the 33rd suffered greatly from them. However, Zinn would rather deal with the men who served, rather than those who deserted, and so focuses on the unit's military career: Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign (the 33rd suffered the highest casualties of any Federal unit at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek), and the March to the Sea and the Carolinas. Zinn generally writes well and has discovered a trove of letters and diaries to flesh out his text. There are campaign maps, but no battle maps. The text is liberally illustrated with clear photos of the officers and some enlisted men. The 33rd started as a Zouave unit with a unique uniform that was worn through the Atlanta Campaign. He does not include any post-war biographical information and I was left asking what happened to his major characters. His notable manner of writing is to begin too many of his sentences with "Since...." Since this happens in most paragraphs, it is very distracting. Since no editor caught this mannerism, perhaps the reader could turn it into a drinking game: drink a sip of your favorite libation each time you read it. You wouldn't get very far. Overall, though, this is a fine book about an interesting unit and Zinn should be commended for its publication.