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That Body of Brave Men: The U.S. Regular Infantry and the Civil War in the West, 1861-1865

UW-L Author: Mark W. Johnson, M.A.
Military Science
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Da Capo Press

Johnson, Mark W. That Body of Brave Men: The U.S. Regular Infantry and the Civil War in the West, 1861-1865. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003.

Two separate components made up the bulk of the Union Army during the American Civil War: state volunteer regiments and the Regular Army. The volunteers have stood forefront in the mind of the American public, perhaps because the vast majority of Northern soldiers served in volunteer units. While much has been written about America’s citizen-soldiers in the Civil War, there has been very little scholarly attention paid to the 75,000 professional soldiers of the Union’s Regular Army.

That Body of Brave Men covers the full history of the four Regular Army regiments that fought in the Civil War’s Western Theater, the 15th, 16th, 18th, and 19th U.S. Infantry Regiments: from recruitment and training to deployment, combat actions, and post-war fortunes.

Using old regimental records from the Civil War, as well as diaries and letters, the author has unearthed a wealth of new material about this long-neglected topic. He covers every unit and every battle in compelling narrative and exhaustive detail, and reaches some surprising conclusions about the significant role these troops played in the Union’s eventual victory.

That Body of Brave Men was nominated as a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation’s 2004 Distinguished Writing Award.

About the Author

Mark W. Johnson is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and is currently assigned as the UW—La Crosse Professor of Military Science. He received his officer’s commission from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986, and for the past twenty-two years has served at posts around the United States and overseas in Germany, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

Lieutenant Colonel Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from West Point and a master’s degree in history from the University of Wyoming. He is a doctoral candidate in history at the State University of New York, and is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Alpha Theta.

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