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Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War
A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut's Civil War
A Broken Regiment recounts the tragic history of one of the Civil War's most ill-fated Union military units. Organized in the late summer of 1862, the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was unprepared for battle a month later, when it entered the fight at Antietam. The results were nearly a quarter of the men were killed or wounded, and Connecticut's 16th panicked and fled the field. In the years that followed, the regiment participated in minor skirmishes before surrendering en masse in North Carolina in 1864. Most of its members spent months in southern prison camps, including the notorious Andersonville stockade, where disease and starvation took the lives of over one hundred members of the unit.
The struggles of the 16th led survivors to reflect on the true nature of their military experience during and after the war, and questions of cowardice and courage, patriotism and purpose, were often foremost in their thoughts. Over time, competing stories emerged of who they were, why they endured what they did, and how they should be remembered. By the end of the century, their collective recollections reshaped this troubling and traumatic past, and the "unfortunate regiment" emerged as "The Brave Sixteenth," their individual memories and accounts altered to fit the more heroic contours of the Union victory.
The product of over a decade of research, Lesley J. Gordon's A Broken Regiment illuminates this unit's complex history amid the interplay of various, and often competing, voices. The result is a fascinating and heartrending story of one regiment's wartime and postwar struggles.
The struggles of the 16th led survivors to reflect on the true nature of their military experience during and after the war, and questions of cowardice and courage, patriotism and purpose, were often foremost in their thoughts. Over time, competing stories emerged of who they were, why they endured what they did, and how they should be remembered. By the end of the century, their collective recollections reshaped this troubling and traumatic past, and the "unfortunate regiment" emerged as "The Brave Sixteenth," their individual memories and accounts altered to fit the more heroic contours of the Union victory.
The product of over a decade of research, Lesley J. Gordon's A Broken Regiment illuminates this unit's complex history amid the interplay of various, and often competing, voices. The result is a fascinating and heartrending story of one regiment's wartime and postwar struggles.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 29, 2015
One of the most vital bits of information which can come from Civil War history are the stories of the regiments who fought on the front lines and gave their all for the sake of their country. Some regiments are more memorable than others such as the 54th Massachusetts and the 20th Maine. Then there are the regiments whose deeds are known, but more well-known through the work of historians who have worked tirelessly to bring their heroism to our attention. In A Broken Regiment, Lesley Gordon has accomplished this feat in remembrance of the 16th Connecticut and showcases not only the history of the 16th Connecticut but other aspects about the state during the Civil War.
Lesley J. Gordon is a professor of history at the University of Akron. She is also the author of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend and is the coeditor of Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas. She is also an avid book reviewer and has authored many articles. She is the current editor of the scholarly journal Civil War History.
When people usually think about the 16th Connecticut, one event comes to mind: Antietam. While it was their first major action in a major battle, Gordon spends the rest of the novel describing what these men accomplished throughout the war. She opens her work with short biographies on some of the participants in the regiment including Jacob Bauer, Henry L. Pasco and many others. After a brief description of the regiment’s muster and their life at Camp Williams, Gordon moves to Antietam where the regiment’s participation is described in great detail. After reading through Gordon’s description of the 16th Connecticut at Antietam, I can easily say that it is one of the best accounts of a regiment in a battle I have read in quite some time. As the narrative goes on, Gordon takes the reader through the various events of the regiment’s history ranging from Fredericksburg, Portsmouth and Plymouth. One of the more gut wrenching accounts throughout the text is the portion of the work which has been dedicated to Andersonville. The words of Robert Kellogg wrote in his diary of soldiers who were once men and had turned into skeletons is just one of the many accounts which showcases the horrors of Andersonville Prison. This story is one of the many reasons that this regimental history stands out over some of the others written in recent years. Not only does Gordon give us the history of the regiment, she also gives us the humanity of the regiment which is an art that is hard to come by these days.
I highly recommend this work to anyone interested in regimental histories or anyone interested in the history of the state of Connecticut during the Civil War. I believe that I can say easily that this is one of the best regimental histories I have read in my lifetime. There is much in this book that can teach others not only in creating a compelling narrative, but by teaching a history of a regiment not usually discussed past their actions at Antietam. I would also consider this the best book about a Connecticut regiment to have come out in years. I hope that this work will be considered a classic in the realm of Connecticut history in the years to come as it is a triumph of scholarship.
Matthew Bartlett - Gettysburg Chronicle
Lesley J. Gordon is a professor of history at the University of Akron. She is also the author of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend and is the coeditor of Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas. She is also an avid book reviewer and has authored many articles. She is the current editor of the scholarly journal Civil War History.
When people usually think about the 16th Connecticut, one event comes to mind: Antietam. While it was their first major action in a major battle, Gordon spends the rest of the novel describing what these men accomplished throughout the war. She opens her work with short biographies on some of the participants in the regiment including Jacob Bauer, Henry L. Pasco and many others. After a brief description of the regiment’s muster and their life at Camp Williams, Gordon moves to Antietam where the regiment’s participation is described in great detail. After reading through Gordon’s description of the 16th Connecticut at Antietam, I can easily say that it is one of the best accounts of a regiment in a battle I have read in quite some time. As the narrative goes on, Gordon takes the reader through the various events of the regiment’s history ranging from Fredericksburg, Portsmouth and Plymouth. One of the more gut wrenching accounts throughout the text is the portion of the work which has been dedicated to Andersonville. The words of Robert Kellogg wrote in his diary of soldiers who were once men and had turned into skeletons is just one of the many accounts which showcases the horrors of Andersonville Prison. This story is one of the many reasons that this regimental history stands out over some of the others written in recent years. Not only does Gordon give us the history of the regiment, she also gives us the humanity of the regiment which is an art that is hard to come by these days.
I highly recommend this work to anyone interested in regimental histories or anyone interested in the history of the state of Connecticut during the Civil War. I believe that I can say easily that this is one of the best regimental histories I have read in my lifetime. There is much in this book that can teach others not only in creating a compelling narrative, but by teaching a history of a regiment not usually discussed past their actions at Antietam. I would also consider this the best book about a Connecticut regiment to have come out in years. I hope that this work will be considered a classic in the realm of Connecticut history in the years to come as it is a triumph of scholarship.
Matthew Bartlett - Gettysburg Chronicle
January 28, 2015
Dr. Gordon,
I've completed your history of the 16thCV. I think you have achieved what your summary in conclusion states. Thank you so much.
It's a wonderful narrative of the historical record, a compelling human story, and you have fulfilled context and content for me that I could not possibly imagined or unearthed or collected. You have given honest and honorable background to my mother's family and their echoes and anecdotes I grew up with…real echoes of my mother's grandfather's service to his country, state, and fellow volunteers. A kind of life of service that his sons continued to live out in the East Berlin, Middletown, and Storrs, CT communities. Family lives begun long ago in 1647.
And I have many personal experiences and memories too, from my childhood and more recent.
For instance I grew up with a photo of Henry E. Savage, with his sergeants chevrons on his sleeve, at my bedside. And my brother Tom, he's passed now, but our last living time together, along with Henry's grandson, our Uncle, Charles Savage, MD, now dead too, a psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration was at Burnside Bridge and the 16th CV battlefield monument on the Antietem Battlefield. My son Townsend made a photo of the three of us at the bridge and in the hollow of sunken road.
Tom and I had planned to visit Andersonville National POW site; I don't think he kew of the 16thCV monument there; I did not. He'd sent me the Andersonville history by William Marvel as a gift and preparation; Uncle Charles called Andersonville the Dachau of the South. We never made it. Your account will have to suffice for now. I'm not sure I've the desire to go to that killing field Henry survived or to view the monument. Given a real choice I'd rather see Savage Hill and 35 Ledge Road in CT again.
So you've blessed my family, my mother's Savage family, with a wonderful gift and narrative I treasure and I will return to it and it will help sustain me. Who knows our echoes may continue to sound through to my son, who carries his great great grandfather Savage's surname. He and his beloved are expecting 1st child this spring.
Thank you so very much; long may your career continue.
William Savage Collins
Great Grandson of Henry E. Savage, 16th C.V.
I've completed your history of the 16thCV. I think you have achieved what your summary in conclusion states. Thank you so much.
It's a wonderful narrative of the historical record, a compelling human story, and you have fulfilled context and content for me that I could not possibly imagined or unearthed or collected. You have given honest and honorable background to my mother's family and their echoes and anecdotes I grew up with…real echoes of my mother's grandfather's service to his country, state, and fellow volunteers. A kind of life of service that his sons continued to live out in the East Berlin, Middletown, and Storrs, CT communities. Family lives begun long ago in 1647.
And I have many personal experiences and memories too, from my childhood and more recent.
For instance I grew up with a photo of Henry E. Savage, with his sergeants chevrons on his sleeve, at my bedside. And my brother Tom, he's passed now, but our last living time together, along with Henry's grandson, our Uncle, Charles Savage, MD, now dead too, a psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration was at Burnside Bridge and the 16th CV battlefield monument on the Antietem Battlefield. My son Townsend made a photo of the three of us at the bridge and in the hollow of sunken road.
Tom and I had planned to visit Andersonville National POW site; I don't think he kew of the 16thCV monument there; I did not. He'd sent me the Andersonville history by William Marvel as a gift and preparation; Uncle Charles called Andersonville the Dachau of the South. We never made it. Your account will have to suffice for now. I'm not sure I've the desire to go to that killing field Henry survived or to view the monument. Given a real choice I'd rather see Savage Hill and 35 Ledge Road in CT again.
So you've blessed my family, my mother's Savage family, with a wonderful gift and narrative I treasure and I will return to it and it will help sustain me. Who knows our echoes may continue to sound through to my son, who carries his great great grandfather Savage's surname. He and his beloved are expecting 1st child this spring.
Thank you so very much; long may your career continue.
William Savage Collins
Great Grandson of Henry E. Savage, 16th C.V.
Read
August 16, 2018Fascinating look at one regiment's journey through the Civil War. Especially appreciated learning what happened to them after the war.
March 29, 2015
When you think you know everything about the Civil War, along comes a book like this. Gordon has captured (Pun intended) a view of the war unlike so many others.
Instead of being a regimental history of battles and leaders, she cuts to the core of the complexity that was that war. We have a monolithic view of why folks fought that "North good, South bad." Instead, she shows how complex the reasons they thought were. She also deftly weaves the progress of the unit, from enlistment in Connecticut; to the bloodiest battle of the war, where they broke and ran; to seeming doldrums of garrison duty around Portsmouth, VA; to new garrison at Plymouth, NC, where they ended up being captured after the garrison was forced to surrender; on into the hell and atrocities of Andersonville; and finally into post-war redemption.
Read this one.
Instead of being a regimental history of battles and leaders, she cuts to the core of the complexity that was that war. We have a monolithic view of why folks fought that "North good, South bad." Instead, she shows how complex the reasons they thought were. She also deftly weaves the progress of the unit, from enlistment in Connecticut; to the bloodiest battle of the war, where they broke and ran; to seeming doldrums of garrison duty around Portsmouth, VA; to new garrison at Plymouth, NC, where they ended up being captured after the garrison was forced to surrender; on into the hell and atrocities of Andersonville; and finally into post-war redemption.
Read this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2015
We know the names of some great regiments....54th Mass, 20th Maine, 23rd Ohio(Hayes and McKinley) etc.....and then there's the 16th Conn. Star crossed....
October 30, 2020
This was recommended to me as one of the best books on the soldier’s experience in the Civil War. I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. The 16th Connecticut represents how hard service in that war could be. There was little glory for them and much heartache. To me, they redefined valor. A very good book.
January 14, 2016
Gordon's analytical resurrection of the regimental history genre is a vital addition to recent historiography. As we grope for ways to connect "new" military history with the traditional operational history of old, it only makes sense to return to the fundamental building block of field armies: the regiment. "A Broken Regiment" also speaks volumes for the value of engrossing oneself in the intimate details of a particular body of men so as to present their collective story in the highest possible definition. Blending memory work within her narrative, Gordon has effectively written the biography of a regiment. Though I might have missed it, I noticed she seems not to have consulted the Regimental Orders or Letters Books of the unit, which seems odd considering their increasing usage among scholars following in the wake of Foote's "Gentlemen and the Roughs," but the omission certainly does not detract substantively from what is a masterpiece of "Soldier Studies" scholarship, and truly a valuable model for re-approaching regimental history from a mature and analytical stance.
June 1, 2015
I absolutely loved this book! It was engaging, interesting, and because much of it was told through the first hand accounts of the soldiers I found myself really growing attached to some of them and routing for their success.
If you're interested in or love the Civil War, I highly recommend this book.
If you're interested in or love the Civil War, I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews