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The Sharpshooters

A History of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War

Edward G. Longacre

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: Potomac Books
Published: 01/2017
Pages: 432
Subject: History
eBook ISBN: 9781612348834

DESCRIPTION

Recruited as sharpshooters and clothed in distinctive uniforms with green trim, the hand-picked regiment of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry was renowned and admired far and wide. The only New Jersey regiment to reenlist for the duration of the Civil War at the close of its initial three-year term, the Ninth saw action in forty-two battles and engagements across three states. Throughout the South, the regiment broke up enemy camps and supply depots, burned bridges, and destroyed railroad tracks to thwart Confederate movements. Members of the Ninth also suffered disease and starvation as POWs at the notorious Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Recruited largely from socially conservative cities and villages in northern and central New Jersey, the Ninth Volunteer Infantry consisted of men with widely differing opinions about the Union and their enemy. Edward G. Longacre unearths these complicated political and social views, tracing the history of this esteemed regiment before, during, and after the war—from recruitment at Camp Olden to final operations in North Carolina.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edward G. Longacre is the award-winning author of numerous books on the Civil War, including The Early Morning of War: Bull Run, 1861; Fitz Lee: A Military Biography of Major General Fitzhugh Lee, C.S.A. (Nebraska, 2010); and Gentleman and Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton III (Nebraska, 2009). He lives in Newport News, Virginia, on land fought over during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign.

REVIEWS

"In The Sharpshooters, seasoned historian and master storyteller Ed Longacre breathes life into a memorable account of common men struggling to overcome the unvarnished reality of war. Heads above most regimental histories."—Rod Gragg, author of Covered with Glory: The Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg  

"The Sharpshooters covers all the bases, including organization, tactics, and soldiers' mixed political, social, and racial attitudes in a unique unit deployed in a little-known theater of war, filling a niche in both New Jersey and Civil War history."—Joseph G. Bilby, coauthor of "Remember You Are Jerseymen!": A Military History of New Jersey's Troops in the Civil War  

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