Customer Reviews

Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard's Vermonters and the Repulse of Pickett's Charge

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Howard Coffin's book on the Second Vermont Brigade is a real treat, a book filled with interesting personal anecdotes on soldier life and the terror of the battlefield drawn from dairies, letters home, journals, and newspaper accounts. His lucid writing style, coupled with the fore-mentioned personal accounts, rivet the reader. This book is hard to put down once you begin reading it.

Coffin traces the regiment from its inception to its mustering out shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, where three of the five regiments were instrumental in turning back Pickett's Charge, as well as the supporting attack by Lang's Floridians and Wilcox's Alabama brigade. Spiced by the first-person accounts, the book offers the reader an interesting perspective on the frustrations, fear, boredom, anger, and anxiety brought about by soldiering. Coofin judiciously mixes narrative on troop movements, battle flow, and organizational matters with anecdotes and vignettes that personalize the life of the Second Vermont Brigade.

All in all, Coffin's book is a must-read for anyone even remotely interested in Pickett's Charge and its repulse, as well as as for anyone interested in Nine-Minths Regiments and Vermont Civil war troops. This is among the best brigade histories that I have ever read! Well recommended!

I read this book because I discovered that my great great grandfather fought with "A Co." 13th Reg. 2nd Brigade. A frenchman in the "Irish" company. Great detail on the volunteers who signed on for a quick nine month adventure and found eight months and two weeks of boredom and in the last weeks of their enlistment had a heroic march to get to Gettysburg and then to meet Picketts Charge, great story, even better knowing it is true.

This is a great book about men who enlisted for nine months late in 1862 to save the Union. The 2nd Vermont Birgade were men who want to to something but were unwilling to enlist for years. Accepting a bounty they gave nine months to the war, that nine moths ended in July 1863 at Gettysburg. At the end of their enlistment they stood fast on July 2nd & 3rd beating back the Longstreet's I Corps.
Making good use of letter, we follow this group of men through the reality of a Civil War enlistment. Eight months of picket lines, sickness, death and being away from home with no action. Quickly changes as we race north after the AoNV into two days of very hard battle. In reading the book, you see how little life in the army has changed and the impact Gettysburg had on the men for the balance of their lives.
Very well written, easy to read and follow. The book has a good level of information but will be best enjoyed if you know something about the time between The 7 Days and Gettysburg.

This is a book for Civil War buffs. The first half is interesting because it focuses on the raising and training of soldiers -- something not usually covered in other books of the genre. However, the author presents this material as a compendium of research tidbits rather than a story. The tale turns compelling and the writing more interesting when the Brigade meets its appointment with destiny at Gettysburg.

Excellently written account of the day to day lives of the volunteer soldiers of the 2nd Vermont Brigade and of particular interest to me in that my great great grandfather was Freeman Sunderland, a member of CO.K, 13th Reg. and mentioned in the book. Thank you Mr. Coffin!

This is an excellent brigade history of the Vermonters who executed a crucial flank attack against Pickett's Charge. Told mostly through letters and diaries, the reader follows the four 9-month brigades as they are mustered in, placed on guard duty, die from disease, and finally take part in the biggest campaign and battle of the Civil War.

Regiment and brigade histories of the War are plentiful, to say the least. This one succeeds in building up feelings of dread and excitement as the Vermont brigades, nearing the end of their enlistment term, are thrown on the roads to Gettysburg, and into the maelstrom of the second and third days of the battle on Cemetery Ridge. The soldier accounts of Pickett's Charge are both horrifying and poignant.

The book itself is excellently presented, with easy-to-read typeface, illustrations in the style of old engravings, and adequate maps. Typos, so common in works from larger and supposedly more prestigious presses, are almost non-existent. The only quibble I had was that Mr. Coffin stated that some of the Vermont veterans met with President Roosevelt at the White House in the fall of 1909, when actually Mr. Taft was the president at that time. Though I'm no scholar on Vermont troops, I think that was the only error I could find in the whole thing.

This book should be read by all those interested in Gettysburg, or of the trials and tribulations faced by Northern (or indeed, any) regular soldiers during the Civil War. Highly recommended.