Customer Reviews

The Third Battalion Mississippi Infantry and the 45th Mississippi Regiment: A Civil War History

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What started off as a family history project, ended up being an extremely detailed and informative account of the 3rd Mississippi Battalion ("Hardcastle's Battalion"). Formed at the end of 1861, it was renamed the 45th Mississippi Regiment in December 1862 because another unit, commanded by D.W. Hurst, had the same identification. The book relates everything there is to know about the battalion/regiment, including minute explication of their battles and movements, who they faced on the field, what other actions were going on around them, and, through letters and diaries, the responses of the soldiers.

Initially with the Army of the Mississippi and then the Army of Tennessee, their first major engagement was at Shiloh; they also were at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, and, finally, Bentonville, NC. Included as an appendix is the prison diary of Lt. Samuel Asbury, who was wounded and captured at Murfreesboro, TN, and spent a good part of 1864 at the Union prison at Fort Delaware. His diary indicates he had a pretty good time of it ("have been treated very well, had plenty to eat, & etc."). Also included is a complete annotated roster of everyone who served in the battalion, a major achievement in itself.

The book is a tremendous research source and covers a lot of ground in great detail; it also is entertaining (if accounts of men in war can ever truly be that) as Williamson quotes frequently from soldiers' letters and diaries relating the human touch ("Warm. Came out to Jim's for dinner, go back directly. Rec'd 4 letters from my Sallie.") An excellent regimental history.

Super read. Thorough and acurate. I followed my great,great grandfather's foot steps in 1862. Awesome expirence! Great study of a MS Battalion in our Civil War.