Three Years in the "Bloody Eleventh" : The Campaigns of a Pennsylvania Reserves Regiment

by Gibbs, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780271021669
• ISBN10: 0271021667
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

Hailing from the Keystone State's rugged western counties, the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves was one of the Civil War's most heavily engaged units. Of more than 2,100 regiments raised by the North, it suffered the eighth highest number of battle deaths, earning it the gruesome sobriquet "Bloody Eleventh."

Three Years in the "Bloody Eleventh" tells the story of this often-overlooked division of the Army of the Potomac from before the war up through 1864. Drawing on letters, diaries, and archival documents, Joseph Gibbs writes of men such as Colonel Thomas Gallagher, who led his troops into battle smoking a cigar, and Samuel Jackson, who became the regiment's commander following Gallagher's promotion. He rediscovers the complexities of the men who commanded the brigades and divisions of which the Eleventh Reserves was a part -- figures such as George Meade, John Reynolds, and Samuel Crawford.

While Gibbs writes about the officers, he never loses sight of the men in the ranks who marched into places such as Gaines's Mill, Miller's Cornfield at Antietam, and t

Author Biography

Joseph Gibbs has worked as a reporter and editor on several Massachusetts newspapers. He has taught at Boston College and Boston University

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations	vii
List of Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	xi
A County Divided	1	(16)
Soldiers in Dead Earnest: Camp Wright to Camp Tennally	17	(34)
No More Bull Run Affairs: Great Falls, Dranesville, and the March to the Rappahannock	51	(42)
One of the Awfulest Battles the World Has Ever Witnessed: The Road to Gaines' Mill	93	(32)
Another Way to Take Richmond: Libby Prison, Belle Isle, and Glendale	125	(18)
Shot Down Like Sheep: Second Bull Run	143	(20)
Brave Comrades Falling: South Mountain and Antietam	163	(26)
Butchered Like So Many Animals: Fredericksburg	189	(18)
A Regiment Worth Its Weight in Gold: Gettysburg	207	(22)
Duty in the Context of the Cartridge Box: Falling Waters, Bristoe Station, and Mine Run	229	(14)
Winter 1863-1864	243	(10)
An Awful Sight of Men Cut Up: The Wilderness to Bethesda Church	253	(26)
A Remnant Returns: Muster-Out	279	(8)
``He Will Sit with a Small Mirror, and Look at His Reflection'': An Epilogue to the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves	287	(22)
Notes	309	(40)
Bibliography	349	(8)
Index	357