“DUTY WELL DONE”
THE HISTORY OF EDWARD BAKER’S CALIFORNIA REGIMENT
(71st PENNSYLVANIA INFANTRY)
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC SERIES
BY GARY G. LASH
FIRST EDITION
MINT CONDITION
Brand New, Unread, Pristine Condition Book
Original, Sharp, Clean, Bright, Solidly Bound, New Book
Contains Illustrations, Photographs, Maps and Documents
Complete with Rosters, Casualty and Statistical Data, and Battle Reports
Fully Referenced and Fully Indexed
THIS WONDERFUL BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 2001
In the middle of May 1861, hundreds of men, most from Philadelphia and New York City, found themselves training along the crowded streets of New York City. These boys were members of the California Regiment, a unit that had been organized in the first weeks following the surrender of Fort Sumter by Senator Edward Dickinson Baker of Oregon, close friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln. Baker’s men, among the troubled nation’s first three-year troops, were in all respects average soldier. Initially, neither New York nor Pennsylvania, but rather the national government, recognized the regiment. Indeed, its rolls were to be applied to the number of men to be called from the State of California. But in November 1861, after par of the regiment had been badly handled in the debacle at Ball’s Bluff and Edward Baker had been killed, the Keystone State adopted the California Regiment, which was redesignated the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Still, any of the men continued to refer to the regiment by its original name rather than its numerical appellation.
The Californians went on from Ball’s Bluff to see heavy duty on the Virginia peninsula. At Antietam, the regiment would suffer its greatest loss of the war in the West Woods, making it part of Fox’s Fighting 300. On December 13, elements of the regiment participated in the senseless assault of Rebel infantry deployed at the base of Mayre’s Height’s at Fredericksburg. At the battle of Gettysburg, on the afternoon of July 3, they found themselves in the vortex of Robert E. Lee’s attempt to storm the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge. Following this, the Californians saw action in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac until they mustered out in July 1864.
This, then, is the story of the California Regiment told, where possible, by the offers and men. We learn that the regiment comprised men from diverse background and dissimilar lifestyles. These were drunkards, thieves, shirkers, deserters and even a murderer. But most of the boys were good and stalwart soldiers some of whom believed that they were fighting for something more than the intangible goal of Union, but rather to end what one fellow had described as the “ungodly Institution” of slavery. All in all, the great majority of Californians proved to be average men who understood that they had a job to do and they did it. Indeed, these fellows had demonstrated that they could do much more than “handle a knapsack and dig an entrenchment, and defend it when it is duty,” Colonel Edward Barker’s expressed hope for his Boys of ’61.
THIS BOOK IS IN MINT CONDITION
This first edition book is brand new, unread and in pristine condition. It comes in a brand new dust jacket. Sample book shown; your book is brand new and comes in the original publisher’s shrink wrap (see photo #2). It has no wear. The pages are clean and bright white. The book is illustrated. 623 pages. High-quality, cloth binding. An excellent condition, brand new, first edition book.
“DUTY WELL DONE”
THE HISTORY OF EDWARD BAKER’S CALIFORNIA REGIMENT
(71st PENNSYLVANIA INFANTRY)
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC SERIES
BY GARY G. LASH
FIRST EDITION
MINT CONDITION
Brand New, Unread, Pristine Condition Book
Original, Sharp, Clean, Bright, Solidly Bound, New Book
Contains Illustrations, Photographs, Maps and Documents
Complete with Rosters, Casualty and Statistical Data, and Battle Reports
Fully Referenced and Fully Indexed
THIS WONDERFUL BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 2001
In the middle of May 1861, hundreds of men, most from Philadelphia and New York City, found themselves training along the crowded streets of New York City. These boys were members of the California Regiment, a unit that had been organized in the first weeks following the surrender of Fort Sumter by Senator Edward Dickinson Baker of Oregon, close friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln. Baker’s men, among the troubled nation’s first three-year troops, were in all respects average soldier. Initially, neither New York nor Pennsylvania, but rather the national government, recognized the regiment. Indeed, its rolls were to be applied to the number of men to be called from the State of California. But in November 1861, after par of the regiment had been badly handled in the debacle at Ball’s Bluff and Edward Baker had been killed, the Keystone State adopted the California Regiment, which was redesignated the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Still, any of the men continued to refer to the regiment by its original name rather than its numerical appellation.
The Californians went on from Ball’s Bluff to see heavy duty on the Virginia peninsula. At Antietam, the regiment would suffer its greatest loss of the war in the West Woods, making it part of Fox’s Fighting 300. On December 13, elements of the regiment participated in the senseless assault of Rebel infantry deployed at the base of Mayre’s Height’s at Fredericksburg. At the battle of Gettysburg, on the afternoon of July 3, they found themselves in the vortex of Robert E. Lee’s attempt to storm the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge. Following this, the Californians saw action in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac until they mustered out in July 1864.
This, then, is the story of the California Regiment told, where possible, by the offers and men. We learn that the regiment comprised men from diverse background and dissimilar lifestyles. These were drunkards, thieves, shirkers, deserters and even a murderer. But most of the boys were good and stalwart soldiers some of whom believed that they were fighting for something more than the intangible goal of Union, but rather to end what one fellow had described as the “ungodly Institution” of slavery. All in all, the great majority of Californians proved to be average men who understood that they had a job to do and they did it. Indeed, these fellows had demonstrated that they could do much more than “handle a knapsack and dig an entrenchment, and defend it when it is duty,” Colonel Edward Barker’s expressed hope for his Boys of ’61.
THIS BOOK IS IN MINT CONDITION This first edition book is brand new, unread and in pristine condition. It comes in a brand new dust jacket. Sample book shown; your book is brand new and comes in the original publisher’s shrink wrap (see photo #2). It has no wear. The pages are clean and bright white. The book is illustrated. 623 pages. High-quality, cloth binding. An excellent condition, brand new, first edition book.
