This was one of the most enjoyable unit histories I have read to date. Rather than a dry regurgitation of daily logs or after action reports Thackery weaves all the historical information into a story from the formation of the 66th to it's exit muster and beyond. He uses an excellent mix of excerpts from letters home, local period newspaper articles, and various historical volumes particularly from Ohio libraries.
Although the book is not about any one person he does allow you to have a persoanl attachment by mentioning the same individuals, of various ranks and assignments, throughout the book. Thackery throws in an occasional side story that gives you a view of other events that occur outside the main context of the book but are tied to the unit or it's members.
Thackery presents the whole picture of soldering during the civil war to include the long marches, garrison duty, sickness, and other parts of military life not often depicted in addition to the combat experience. Although he exposes these other sides, never long enough for you to lose interest or want to stop reading.
He attempted to show the diference between the combat veterans and others and what it was that drew the veterans together in a way that only they would would understand. He shows why those bonds are lifelong and not easily forgotten.
A very easy and enjoyable book to read. A pleasant alternative to dry daily logs or general battle descriptions. |
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War was once aptly described as long periods of intense boredom, punctuated by short periods of intense fear. Thackery's masterly history of the 66th Ohio Volunteer Infantry manages to evoke both these extremes without itself being either boring or explosively sensational. Even in those periods of the Regiment's service when there was limited action, such as long route marches, garrison duty or, in a couple of memorable instances, being stranded on board troopships that had themselves become stuck, Thackery manages to maintain the momentum of his story. He does this by varying the focus from the big picture to micro detail, or by changing the scene, often back to Champaign County in Ohio from where the majority of the Regiment's men had enlisted. Aside from his capacity to move from the broad brush and the large canvas to the fine detail of the small vignette, one of Thackery's greatest talents is his ability to evoke, especially for a non-specialist readership, the lie of the land in major set-piece battles (and even in smaller incidental skirmishes), and his descriptions are often enlivened by clear and informative campaign maps. A second strength is his outstanding use of primary sources, notably the disarmingly frank (and often endearingly misspelt) comments made by common soldiers in their journals or letters home. For me, a third strength of the book is the author's meticulous scholarship. I had read, even before I got the book, that Thackery was one of Amercia's foremost genealogical researchers and local historians, a trained librarian with an encyclopaedic knowledge of available resources. This proved to be the case: it seems that the 66th - a highly regarded Regiment with a proud history - at last has the historian it deserves. I had a very particular interest in reading this book. I have been preparing a history of the Candy family of Kentucky, of which one of the earliest (and arguably the most famous) members is the Regiment's Commanding Officer, Colonel (later Brigadier General) Charles Candy. I was delighted to come across some facts that my own research had failed to unearth, as well as to read about Candy's exploits in the context both of his command, and of the fortunes of the Regiment itself. If I have a misgiving, it is the minor quibble that Thackery might have used more illustrations to enliven the text. However, on reflection, it could be argued that the text is so good, the story so well-written, the narrative so compelling and the characterisation so strong that it doesn't really need enlivening. Lamentably, Thackery did not live to see his book in print. In his mid-forties, he died unexpectedly and prematurely of a heart attack while jogging along Chicago's lakeshore near his home. In this, he shares his untimely death with many of the men about whom he writes, who were likewise cut down in their prime. As a result, we will never know what greater contribution he might have made, professionally or personally. Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy not only of the Civil War but of all war. |
