Information about "Such Hard and Severe Service"

     My book will be published in three volumes through Monongahela Books of Morgantown, WV.
One can visit the publisher's blog for updated titles.  Volume 1 is now on sale. It covers the years 1861 to 1863.  This volume actually begins before the Civil War with a chapter on the Whiskey Rebellion. I wanted to contrast that uprising, which took place in the home area of men of the 85th Pennsylvania in the 1790's, with  the secession of southern states two generations later.

Photo from Pamplin Park, VA

     Civil War events covered in Volume 1 include the organization of the regiment in Uniontown, PA; building fortifications around Washington, DC in 1861-2; the Peninsula Campaign including the battles at Williamsburg and Seven Pines; guarding Union territory at Suffolk, VA; the Goldsboro Expedition in North Carolina in late 1862, and the siege of Charleston, South Carolina in 1863. Also in this volume is a chapter on the family letters of Corporal Davis Himmeger of Company E.
     Volume 2, which will be available later in 2019, will cover the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, including the battles of Ware Bottom Church and Second Deep Bottom; Fort Gregg near Petersburg; Lee's Retreat and eventual surrender at Appomattox Court House; a chapter on regimental reunions between 1871 and 1928. Included in this volume is a chapter on the diary of Captain Richard W. Dawson of Company I.
   
Volume 3, which will be available in 2020, will include alphabetized biographies of the men in regiment. including their war service and postwar lives.