Customer Reviews

My Unknown Soldier: A History of the 4th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the Civil War

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Nancy Weber was given a battered, incomplete civil war diary and the main purpose of her book is to discover the authorship of the diary. She does a credible job in solving the puzzle. However, to say that she has written a history of the 4th Massachusetts is overstatement. She provides a travelogue of places and maintains a chronological order to her work. She includes much general civil war history which may be unnecessary for a reader looking into a specific topic as the 4th Mass.
She has had access to the Dargan diaries, but avoids the more controversial topics addressed therein, particularily Dargan's near-phobic reactions to Colonel Henry Walker and his behaviors. She does not mention the unit's discontent at prolonged fatique duty at Brashear City. She avoids an in-depth discussion of the behavior of the 4th Mass at the assault on Priest's Cap at the seige of Port Hudson. She does not address the remarks of an earlier writer who claims that the 4th Mass actually broke and ran away. She does not go into the interactions amongst General Banks, the War Department, Walker-Colby, Shouler and Governor Andrew of Massachusetts about the mutiny and their reactions. Nor does she discuss the attempts made to retrieve the mutineers by the citizens of Mass. Dargan mentions a court martial which occurred at sea and Ms. Weber has no mention of this event. In short, in such a specialized topic as the 4th Massachusetts Militia, more depth of research is necessary.

Yours,

Thomas J. Keenan, MD.

This is first and foremost a wonderful mystery story which the book's introduction makes clear. An untitled, coverless, weather-beaten diary is found in a chest drawer, and the author begins years of research tracking who the owner might be. This had to be a labor of love by a knowledgable writer. Then follows a simple but accurate depiction of the foot soldier as he leaves Massachusetts for the southwest while the Civil War unfolds all around him.