Fields of Fame & Glory:, Colonel David Ireland and the 137th New York Volunteers
The 137th New York saw action in the East through Gettysburg before being sent into Tennessee and Georgia. Like almost every regimental history, this book meticulously traces the regiment from its origins through the end of the war. Blow by blow, anecdote by anecdote, the author has utilized excellent primary sources, such as letters, diarie, and contemporary newspaper articles to preserve the memory of a very hard-fighting regiment. Unfortunately, the work needs some serious editorial assistance. There are no endnotes or footnotes through which Civil War enthusiasts like me actually scrounge to check the accuracy of the work or to locate hard-to-find sources to help them in their own research. The many excerpts from primary sources are italicized and very often quite lengthy. Sometimes the source of a quote does not appear either before or after it. Several of the book’s shortfalls include: writing in the passive voice, utilizing contractions throughout the narrative, abbreviating ranks and occasionally coining a new sobriquet for a general. On p. 116, the following appears: “Monday morning, Lee intended to insure that ‘Mr. F.J. Hooker’ was kept from taking the offensive.” It took a moment for me to realize that “F J.” meant “Fighting Joe.” Packed as it is with valuable information, Fields of Fame & Glory needs revision to become the good book hidden within its pages. Reviewer: John Michael Priest John Michael Priest is a 30-year Civil War and U.S. history teacher in Washington County, Maryland, high schools. A member of Historical Miniature Wargaming Society, he is an avid 54mm wargamer--French and Indian War through the U. S. Civil War. He has written four Civil War books and has a manuscript under consideration at the University of Kentucky Press.
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Illustrated, photographs, maps, bibliography, 427 pages, 2010, Xlibris, $23.99, softcover.