Westerners in Gray: The Men and Missions of the Elite Fifth Missouri Infantry Regiment
By Phillip Thomas Tucker
(September 2008 Civil War News)

Maps, notes, bibliography, softcover, 331 pp., 2007. McFarland, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $39.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Robert L. Durham
Robert L. Durham is a computer specialist. A longtime Civil War buff, he is also interested in Old West history and has written articles and book reviews for Alamo Journal, True West, Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, and Alamo de Parras web site at www.flash.net/~alamo3

Review:
 Westerners in Gray is a reprint of a 1995 edition. The 5th Missouri Infantry was a key unit in the famed First Missouri Brigade, one of the premier brigades in the Confederate Army. Their battle record is arguably a better one than those of the more famous Stonewall Brigade or Orphan Brigade.

 The 5th Missouri was a latecomer to the brigade but not a latecomer to the war. The men who would make up the brigade were veterans of two battalions and an independent company. Formed into a regiment, the 5th became a part of the First Missouri Brigade on Sept. 1, 1862.

They would go on to share the fate of their brigade in the battles of Iuka, Corinth and the final Vicksburg Campaign. In all of their battles with the brigade, the 5th Missouri played a key role. After Vicksburg, the small remnant of the 5th was merged with the 3rd Missouri; their subsequent military is covered in a short epilogue.

 Westerners is a well-written account of the exploits of this fine regiment; Tucker describes the battles so well, the reader almost feels that he is there. The book would have benefited from some good photographs and from more and better maps. However, it is a first-rate story as it is, being an excellent primer for further study about the First Missouri Brigade.

For anyone interested in the war in the Western Theater, this would be a good volume to add to your Civil War bookshelf.