A Hell of a Regiment: To Gettysburg and Beyond with the Twentieth Maine

During the American Civil War, armies were organized along regional and political lines, and the 20th Regiment from Maine became arguably the most storied Union regiment of the war. This ragtag collection of farmers and loggers, drawn from the overflow of more prestigious units, took part in many of the major battles of the war: Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and Gettysburg, and was present at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House. Starting with their induction and using previously unused and unknown sources, Peatman (The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address) details the privations, losses, tribulations, and successes of this fabled military unit as it evolves from disorganized rabble into the disciplined fighting force that rescued the Battle of Gettysburg, and probably the war, from Union defeat.