Chicago's Battery Boys

by Williams, Richard Brady

• ISBN13: 9781932714388
• ISBN10: 1932714383
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Savas Beatie

Summary

The celebrated Chicago Mercantile Battery was organized by the Mercantile Association, a group of prominent Chicago merchants, and mustered into service in August 1862. The Chicagoans went on to serve in some of the Western Theater's most important campaigns until the war ended three years later, producing an astonishing six Medal of Honor recipients for valor at Vicksburg. Richard Brady Williams' Chicago's Battery Boys: The Chicago Mercantile Battery in the Civil War's Western Theater sets forth in stunning detail the magnificent history of this long-overlooked elite artillery unit. Based upon years of primary research and a wealth of archival documents, this study features scores of previously unpublished war-time photographs, diaries, and letters, which enrich our understanding of the dedicated Battery Boys and what they endured for the cause of liberty and the Union. Williams skillfully weaves a powerful narrative around contemporaneous eyewitness accounts that will satisfy the most discriminating Civil War reader. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Author's Note	p. xxviii
On the Father of Waters	p. 1
If the Rebels Had Not Retreated	p. 21
Jaws of Death	p. 37
Just the Man We Want	p. 57
On the Other Side of the River	p. 75
The Great Assault	p. 101
Vicksburg Has Fallen	p. 123
Capped the Climax	p. 139
I Have Been to New Orleans	p. 159
The Richest Sugar Growing Country	p. 171
Not Enough Fight in This Department	p. 187
Gen. Banks Commands the Expedition	p. 207
No Men Ever Displayed Better Courage	p. 223
Little Use in Disguising Defeat	p. 253
Treated Like Dogs	p. 281
A Shot Thro' the Bulls Eye	p. 307
I Have Been on a Raid	p. 333
The Terrible Death of President Lincoln	p. 355
A Sinking Confederacy	p. 375
Epilogue	p. 397
Touring	p. 415
Roster	p. 416
Notes	p. 424
Bibliography	p. 547
Index	p. 567
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.