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A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment's Civil War
From a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a pathbreaking history of the Civil War centered on a regiment of immigrants and their brutal experience of the conflict.
The Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, yet our nation remains fiercely divided over its enduring legacies. In A Thousand May Fall, Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan returns us to the war itself, bringing us closer than perhaps any prior historian to the chaos of battle and the trials of military life. Creating an intimate, absorbing chronicle from the ordinary soldier’s perspective, he allows us to see the Civil War anew—and through unexpected eyes.
At the heart of Jordan’s vital account is the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was at once representative and exceptional. Its ranks weathered the human ordeal of war in painstakingly routine ways, fighting in two defining battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, each time in the thick of the killing. But the men of the 107th were not lauded as heroes for their bravery and their suffering. Most of them were ethnic Germans, set apart by language and identity, and their loyalties were regularly questioned by a nativist Northern press. We so often assume that the Civil War was a uniquely American conflict, yet Jordan emphasizes the forgotten contributions made by immigrants to the Union cause. An incredible one quarter of the Union army was foreign born, he shows, with 200,000 native Germans alone fighting to save their adopted homeland and prove their patriotism.
In the course of its service, the 107th Ohio was decimated five times over, and although one of its members earned the Medal of Honor for his daring performance in a skirmish in South Carolina, few others achieved any lasting distinction. Reclaiming these men for posterity, Jordan reveals that even as they endured the horrible extremes of war, the Ohioans contemplated the deeper meanings of the conflict at every turn—from personal questions of citizenship and belonging to the overriding matter of slavery and emancipation.
Based on prodigious new research, including diaries, letters, and unpublished memoirs, A Thousand May Fall is a pioneering, revelatory history that restores the common man and the immigrant striver to the center of the Civil War. In our age of fractured politics and emboldened nativism, Jordan forces us to confront the wrenching human realities, and often-forgotten stakes, of the bloodiest episode in our nation’s history.
The Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, yet our nation remains fiercely divided over its enduring legacies. In A Thousand May Fall, Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan returns us to the war itself, bringing us closer than perhaps any prior historian to the chaos of battle and the trials of military life. Creating an intimate, absorbing chronicle from the ordinary soldier’s perspective, he allows us to see the Civil War anew—and through unexpected eyes.
At the heart of Jordan’s vital account is the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was at once representative and exceptional. Its ranks weathered the human ordeal of war in painstakingly routine ways, fighting in two defining battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, each time in the thick of the killing. But the men of the 107th were not lauded as heroes for their bravery and their suffering. Most of them were ethnic Germans, set apart by language and identity, and their loyalties were regularly questioned by a nativist Northern press. We so often assume that the Civil War was a uniquely American conflict, yet Jordan emphasizes the forgotten contributions made by immigrants to the Union cause. An incredible one quarter of the Union army was foreign born, he shows, with 200,000 native Germans alone fighting to save their adopted homeland and prove their patriotism.
In the course of its service, the 107th Ohio was decimated five times over, and although one of its members earned the Medal of Honor for his daring performance in a skirmish in South Carolina, few others achieved any lasting distinction. Reclaiming these men for posterity, Jordan reveals that even as they endured the horrible extremes of war, the Ohioans contemplated the deeper meanings of the conflict at every turn—from personal questions of citizenship and belonging to the overriding matter of slavery and emancipation.
Based on prodigious new research, including diaries, letters, and unpublished memoirs, A Thousand May Fall is a pioneering, revelatory history that restores the common man and the immigrant striver to the center of the Civil War. In our age of fractured politics and emboldened nativism, Jordan forces us to confront the wrenching human realities, and often-forgotten stakes, of the bloodiest episode in our nation’s history.
374 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 26, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 29, 2025
A Thousand May Fall is essentially an A to B recounting of the wartime service of the 107th Ohio, a majority-German regiment whose main claim to fame was their failure to repel a crushing surprise attack during their very first engagement at the battle of Chancellorsville, inadvertently fueling propaganda about the supposed cowardice and lack of discipline demonstrated by immigrant troops. It's a deeply ambivalent tale and to some extent ambivalence seems to be the point of this book, as if Jordan wants to do away with the sense of cosmic destiny or doom that so often clings to stories of war. The negative reviews are right that there's no clear guiding thesis, making this book rather meandering and uncertain in its conclusions. Still, as a reader who enjoys simple narrative histories and often wishes that contemporary history writing was not always so dominated by the academic need to advance a shiny new theory, I wasn't necessarily put off by the tonal unevenness or lack of an overarching argument.
My main reason for picking this up was as a research source for a fiction project I'm working on. To that end, Jordan's social-history emphasis on ordinary camp life, supplemented by accounts and correspondence from the men themselves, was much more useful than the sort of top-down coverage of troop movements and battle strategies typically favored by military historians. Even so, I think he misses a lot of opportunities to contextualize and expand upon the glimpses he gives us. There would've been room, I think, for a more holistic examination of German participation in the war, the trajectories of the Forty-Eighter generation, etc., and there's an assumption of familiarity with some of the counterintuitive realities of Civil War life (an officer taken prisoner but then paroled back to active service within a few weeks, voting procedures on the front lines, etc.) which occasionally left me confused, even coming to this with a decent amount of prior reading.
Beyond supplying material for my own work, the main takeaway here for me was a rather depressing sense of what these particular soldiers endured. Most of them were enthusiastic volunteers, eager to join in service of their adoptive country and to make a good impression on their Anglo neighbors. An especially brutal first taste of battle simultaneously traumatized them and turned them into scapegoats for xenophobic prejudice from the same countrymen they'd hoped to prove themselves to, while an attempt to clear their regiment's name at Gettysburg went largely unheralded and overshadowed by the poor performance of a commanding officer. The survivors spent most of the rest of the war relegated to inessential duty far from the front, thoroughly demoralized and disillusioned (and, atypically for Union troops, vocally opposed to the continuation of the war). Spirits at least seem to have lifted again as they joined in the push to seize South Carolina at war's end, and back home in Ohio they were given a heroes' welcome, though the nation at large would continue to remember them mainly for their perceived failings.
Possibly the most interesting section here (unsurprisingly, given the topic of Jordan's Pulitzer-nominated previous book) is the one dealing with the postwar years, which many of the veterans of the 107th spent tending wounds both physical and psychological, petitioning for government aid, and fighting for the recognition denied them during the war itself. To some extent this book is a continuation of that fight, though I'm afraid it comes much too late to make much of a difference to those who would have most benefitted from a correcting of the record.
My main reason for picking this up was as a research source for a fiction project I'm working on. To that end, Jordan's social-history emphasis on ordinary camp life, supplemented by accounts and correspondence from the men themselves, was much more useful than the sort of top-down coverage of troop movements and battle strategies typically favored by military historians. Even so, I think he misses a lot of opportunities to contextualize and expand upon the glimpses he gives us. There would've been room, I think, for a more holistic examination of German participation in the war, the trajectories of the Forty-Eighter generation, etc., and there's an assumption of familiarity with some of the counterintuitive realities of Civil War life (an officer taken prisoner but then paroled back to active service within a few weeks, voting procedures on the front lines, etc.) which occasionally left me confused, even coming to this with a decent amount of prior reading.
Beyond supplying material for my own work, the main takeaway here for me was a rather depressing sense of what these particular soldiers endured. Most of them were enthusiastic volunteers, eager to join in service of their adoptive country and to make a good impression on their Anglo neighbors. An especially brutal first taste of battle simultaneously traumatized them and turned them into scapegoats for xenophobic prejudice from the same countrymen they'd hoped to prove themselves to, while an attempt to clear their regiment's name at Gettysburg went largely unheralded and overshadowed by the poor performance of a commanding officer. The survivors spent most of the rest of the war relegated to inessential duty far from the front, thoroughly demoralized and disillusioned (and, atypically for Union troops, vocally opposed to the continuation of the war). Spirits at least seem to have lifted again as they joined in the push to seize South Carolina at war's end, and back home in Ohio they were given a heroes' welcome, though the nation at large would continue to remember them mainly for their perceived failings.
Possibly the most interesting section here (unsurprisingly, given the topic of Jordan's Pulitzer-nominated previous book) is the one dealing with the postwar years, which many of the veterans of the 107th spent tending wounds both physical and psychological, petitioning for government aid, and fighting for the recognition denied them during the war itself. To some extent this book is a continuation of that fight, though I'm afraid it comes much too late to make much of a difference to those who would have most benefitted from a correcting of the record.
January 26, 2023
I actually was surprised by this book. I expected a boring monolith about soldiering during the war. What it turned out to be was a modern unit history of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The author does a fantastic job of telling the regiment's story through the view of privates in the ranks. He focuses on the stigma the 107th received for the disaster that was Chancellorsville, and the unit's efforts to live down this reputation. Definitely a pleasant surprise: a modern unit history written in a capable style.
June 22, 2021
I have been trying to get more down to the nitty gritty of the experience of a soldier in the Civil War, rather than just the over all history aspect and this was a pleasant experience down that road. I recently read the history of a different Ohio Regiment and it was great to compare the histories of the two. The regimental history is not indeed a new experience as you will discover in a local history section of a library, but not many new ones are coming out and I think that Jordan did a magnificent job. Looking for glory stories and romanticized Civil War? Try the aspect of the reality of it for a time and see what you think.
March 18, 2025
"A Thousand May Fall" by Brian Matthew Jordan is a gripping and intimate account of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry's experiences during the American Civil War. Jordan's meticulous research and engaging narrative bring to life the soldiers' struggles, emotions, and motivations, offering a fresh and nuanced perspective on the conflict. A must-read for Civil War enthusiasts and history buffs.
January 27, 2021
I had such great hopes for this book. Jordan was a Pulitzer finalist for his work on American Civil War veterans, which I have not read, and this new work focuses on the life of an everyday soldier in the 107th Ohio Volunteer Union Infantry, which includes a large number of immigrant troops. My thanks go to Net Galley and Liveright Books for the review copy. This book is for sale now.
I love a good history book, but I don’t love this one. For starters, we have no apparent thesis. After reading the first third of the narrative, my largest question was where the author wanted to take this thing. Is he demonstrating that the German immigrants weren’t as worthless in combat as their reputation suggests? If so, maybe we should focus on that, rather than on the 107th. Give me a thesis focusing on German Civil War soldiers, support it, make it interesting, and I’ll be a happy reviewer. Another possibility is to find an ordinary foot soldier with a fair amount of interesting correspondence or other material to hold my attention. I like seeing the rank and file recognized, and there’s such an abundance of documentation available for this conflict that this shouldn’t be a difficult project.
Sadly, this isn’t what I find. We have a linear story here, and that makes sense, but we go through training, through the nightmare of Chancellorsville, and then Gettysburg, and when we reach the end, I still can’t locate much purpose to Jordan’s endeavor. Once in a while a compelling nugget jumps out, such as the training march at the book’s outset, where men are driven forward without water, and in the end two men are dead; the march concludes, several hours later, just a mile from the starting point, and we see that brutal leadership and poor planning left some surviving men disillusioned. But in many places research appears to be thrown in for its own sake, and no matter how you dress it up, what that is, is filler. We see bits of letters sent home saying that war is pretty bad. Another writer says that he experienced a “hard, tedious march.” Actually, that one shows up in multiple forms, several times also. There’s another quote about passing “porches and verandas,” and another about arriving at an attractive location. (“Beauty and tranquility.”) I could go on, but since he’s done enough of that for the two of us, I won’t. All of it is meticulously—feverishly, even—documented, but so much of it is documenting material that shouldn’t be here in the first place that I can’t get too excited. A professor should know that you have to edit out the extraneous junk and tighten your writing.
There are a few bright spots. I didn’t know there were two different kinds of court martial, so I learned one thing here. Jordan seems to point toward the German infantryman being courageous and willing, but crippled by cowardly, incompetent leadership. I wish that he had used this as his central thesis and thrown away the extraneous crud. There would be a point to the book if he did that, and I could write the sort of glowing review that gets me out of bed in the morning.
As it is, I can’t recommend it.
I love a good history book, but I don’t love this one. For starters, we have no apparent thesis. After reading the first third of the narrative, my largest question was where the author wanted to take this thing. Is he demonstrating that the German immigrants weren’t as worthless in combat as their reputation suggests? If so, maybe we should focus on that, rather than on the 107th. Give me a thesis focusing on German Civil War soldiers, support it, make it interesting, and I’ll be a happy reviewer. Another possibility is to find an ordinary foot soldier with a fair amount of interesting correspondence or other material to hold my attention. I like seeing the rank and file recognized, and there’s such an abundance of documentation available for this conflict that this shouldn’t be a difficult project.
Sadly, this isn’t what I find. We have a linear story here, and that makes sense, but we go through training, through the nightmare of Chancellorsville, and then Gettysburg, and when we reach the end, I still can’t locate much purpose to Jordan’s endeavor. Once in a while a compelling nugget jumps out, such as the training march at the book’s outset, where men are driven forward without water, and in the end two men are dead; the march concludes, several hours later, just a mile from the starting point, and we see that brutal leadership and poor planning left some surviving men disillusioned. But in many places research appears to be thrown in for its own sake, and no matter how you dress it up, what that is, is filler. We see bits of letters sent home saying that war is pretty bad. Another writer says that he experienced a “hard, tedious march.” Actually, that one shows up in multiple forms, several times also. There’s another quote about passing “porches and verandas,” and another about arriving at an attractive location. (“Beauty and tranquility.”) I could go on, but since he’s done enough of that for the two of us, I won’t. All of it is meticulously—feverishly, even—documented, but so much of it is documenting material that shouldn’t be here in the first place that I can’t get too excited. A professor should know that you have to edit out the extraneous junk and tighten your writing.
There are a few bright spots. I didn’t know there were two different kinds of court martial, so I learned one thing here. Jordan seems to point toward the German infantryman being courageous and willing, but crippled by cowardly, incompetent leadership. I wish that he had used this as his central thesis and thrown away the extraneous crud. There would be a point to the book if he did that, and I could write the sort of glowing review that gets me out of bed in the morning.
As it is, I can’t recommend it.
July 14, 2021
Unfortunately this was a very fragmentary and unfocused narrative that struggles to make sense of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry's experiences in the Civil War. There's a lot of grist here for a compelling story (the high proportion of German-Americans composing the 107th's ranks, their journey from the Chancellorsville disaster to victory at Gettysburg, a handful of individually fascinating characters) and while that's all included, it's done so in a rather drab, wandering style that doesn't resonate like it should. As I read the book, I struggled to see any clear unifying purpose to the stories being told. There are hints of a redemption story, but it's a poorly executed one if that's the case.
November 14, 2024
This book was striking in that it was an exhaustive chronicling of a single unit's mustering and deployment in the American Civil War. It was filled to the brim with the intimate, ground-level experiences of the men who made up the ranks of the unit as well as the input and thoughts of their friends, family, detractors, the press, and even the enemy.
The 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of ethnic German immigrants, saw battle across such vaunted and bloody battlefields as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, as well as minor skirmishes across two separate theaters of the conflict. Made scapegoat for what we now know was a miserable tactical error and failure of command on several levels, the book's meticulous reconstruction of events is truly something to behold. The book seeks to bring about a full accounting of the unit's time on campaign, 'warts and all', and while it has an obvious bias in favor of the subjects of the text, it gives ample context from the bottom up with excellent clarity and detail.
The insight into the intimate, close world of an American volunteer soldier in the Union Army, as well as the unique perspective of their ethnic/national separation from the young country and its nativist leanings, was a wonderful experience. There was some summarizing and bridging in the structure of the book that I understand was due to the unfortunate sparsity of official records of the unit's service. The narrative is formed out of what survives of regimental records, journals, diaries, letters, news articles, post-war testimonials, and efforts by veterans and their descendants to piece together as complete a picture as possible. There is the glossing over of some elements, particularly when it comes to the question of emancipation and the 'racial aspect' of the war and the discussion surrounding it that rages to this day, but that aspect isn't the 'focus' of the text, or the root of it's 'purpose' so the time paid to it is, I feel, fair.
The book sadly felt short, with the acknowledgements/works cited/glossary section a testament to the painstaking research and investigation put into the final product.
A blunt statement on the current oversaturated market of Civil War texts is that 'every story has been told, and at this point it's all about different, more niche segments of the conflict for the sake of squeezing every available penny out of every particular enthusiast in regards to the subject' is, I feel, unfortunately fair. With that being said, this book was an interesting addition to the wealth of the story of the American Civil War.
I enjoyed it, and feel it a good supplemental piece of history for any enthusiast or amateur hobbyist historian/SME
The 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of ethnic German immigrants, saw battle across such vaunted and bloody battlefields as Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, as well as minor skirmishes across two separate theaters of the conflict. Made scapegoat for what we now know was a miserable tactical error and failure of command on several levels, the book's meticulous reconstruction of events is truly something to behold. The book seeks to bring about a full accounting of the unit's time on campaign, 'warts and all', and while it has an obvious bias in favor of the subjects of the text, it gives ample context from the bottom up with excellent clarity and detail.
The insight into the intimate, close world of an American volunteer soldier in the Union Army, as well as the unique perspective of their ethnic/national separation from the young country and its nativist leanings, was a wonderful experience. There was some summarizing and bridging in the structure of the book that I understand was due to the unfortunate sparsity of official records of the unit's service. The narrative is formed out of what survives of regimental records, journals, diaries, letters, news articles, post-war testimonials, and efforts by veterans and their descendants to piece together as complete a picture as possible. There is the glossing over of some elements, particularly when it comes to the question of emancipation and the 'racial aspect' of the war and the discussion surrounding it that rages to this day, but that aspect isn't the 'focus' of the text, or the root of it's 'purpose' so the time paid to it is, I feel, fair.
The book sadly felt short, with the acknowledgements/works cited/glossary section a testament to the painstaking research and investigation put into the final product.
A blunt statement on the current oversaturated market of Civil War texts is that 'every story has been told, and at this point it's all about different, more niche segments of the conflict for the sake of squeezing every available penny out of every particular enthusiast in regards to the subject' is, I feel, unfortunately fair. With that being said, this book was an interesting addition to the wealth of the story of the American Civil War.
I enjoyed it, and feel it a good supplemental piece of history for any enthusiast or amateur hobbyist historian/SME
May 21, 2021
A somewhat different approach to Civil War history. The author focuses on one particular regiment and the soldiers' experiences, using their own writings. The 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was raised in early 1862. It was largely composed of ethnic Germans, some immigrants from Germany, others born to immigrant parents. The regiment, as with other German regiments, faced considerable prejudice from Nativist elements. The regiment's first major battle was Chancellorsville, where they had the misfortune to be on the Union right flank which bore the brunt of Stonewall Jackson's flanking attack and crumbled. Blame for the failure rests largely with the commanding general who was warned of confederate troops moving around his flank but failed to take action. But in the finger pointing after the battle the German regiments made suitable scapegoats and were popularly and wrongly blamed for the defeat. The 107th then took part in the battle of Gettysburg, where they were one of regiments defending Blocher's Knoll (now called Barlow's Knoll). After a hard battle the Union troops were pushed back. Again, the general in charge, Barlow, who was wounded and captured, tried to assign blame to the immigrant troops for the failure.
After Gettysburg the 107th was sent to first South Carolina where it participated in the siege of Charleston, then to Jacksonville, Florida. They participated in no more major battles, but numerous skirmishes and raids, and long, monotonous periods of occupation duty. They were mustered out in June, 1865, after two years and ten months of service. Their service probably mirrors that of many other regiments, a few days of pitched battle and many months of grinding boredom.
The author addresses well an aspect of Civil War service that gets overlooked, the long term effects of their service on the veterans. Many of the soldiers returned home with physical and mental health problems that would never really be healed, from battle wounds to the effects of diseases, poor diet, exposure from living in the open or in poor shelter, to what would today probably be considered PTSD. Many spent years fighting for their pension benefits.
A good addition to a Civil War library.
After Gettysburg the 107th was sent to first South Carolina where it participated in the siege of Charleston, then to Jacksonville, Florida. They participated in no more major battles, but numerous skirmishes and raids, and long, monotonous periods of occupation duty. They were mustered out in June, 1865, after two years and ten months of service. Their service probably mirrors that of many other regiments, a few days of pitched battle and many months of grinding boredom.
The author addresses well an aspect of Civil War service that gets overlooked, the long term effects of their service on the veterans. Many of the soldiers returned home with physical and mental health problems that would never really be healed, from battle wounds to the effects of diseases, poor diet, exposure from living in the open or in poor shelter, to what would today probably be considered PTSD. Many spent years fighting for their pension benefits.
A good addition to a Civil War library.
August 8, 2022
I really struggled with how I wanted to rate this book. The premise of this book seems to be about how the German Immigrants as a whole were good soldiers and were equal to their native counterparts in battle. He also speaks heavily to the fact that the German immigrants were antislavery, which is largely true and well documented.
The book starts off attempting to head this direction and then appears to have almost been written by someone else as it aimlessly follows the Ohio 107th through their battles as it piecemeal quotes to tell a narrative. There is a lot of extra fluff quotes thrown in seemingly for page count. There is no book or group that I have read about during this time that didn't think that their group was one of the finest mustered from whatever location you can pick.
It is clear that the Barlow (the general in charge) blamed the German Immigrants of the Ohio 107th for the failures at Gettysburg and the German Immigrants wanting to restore their honor later claimed it was the other way around. No one on either side wanted to die a coward, or fight on the losing side of the war. Groups took great honor in where they were from (state and nation) on both side of the war. They all wanted to be gallant winners, but the sad reality is that both there will always be a losing side in every skirmish or battle. Sometimes one side was just better (prepared, armed, etc.) than the other.
All of this shows how fractured and divided the nation was during the civil war as there was no clear unity or union of groups or states. However, with all of this being said, this book adds almost nothing to the conversation of the civil war and certainly doesn't confirm anything from its title.
The book starts off attempting to head this direction and then appears to have almost been written by someone else as it aimlessly follows the Ohio 107th through their battles as it piecemeal quotes to tell a narrative. There is a lot of extra fluff quotes thrown in seemingly for page count. There is no book or group that I have read about during this time that didn't think that their group was one of the finest mustered from whatever location you can pick.
It is clear that the Barlow (the general in charge) blamed the German Immigrants of the Ohio 107th for the failures at Gettysburg and the German Immigrants wanting to restore their honor later claimed it was the other way around. No one on either side wanted to die a coward, or fight on the losing side of the war. Groups took great honor in where they were from (state and nation) on both side of the war. They all wanted to be gallant winners, but the sad reality is that both there will always be a losing side in every skirmish or battle. Sometimes one side was just better (prepared, armed, etc.) than the other.
All of this shows how fractured and divided the nation was during the civil war as there was no clear unity or union of groups or states. However, with all of this being said, this book adds almost nothing to the conversation of the civil war and certainly doesn't confirm anything from its title.
October 12, 2023
I rate this book 3 1/2 stars because it really isn't a bad book but its not the easiest thing to read and yet its interesting but just tough to read. I think it almost deserves 4 stars but for me personally the difficulty of the text is enough to say not quite. its an interesting book with an different view into the civil war.
The plot is following the 107th Ohio volunteer division which is an immigrant division of ethnic Germans and how they experience the civil war and the battles that they were a part of during the war.
I believe that the theme is brotherhood. I say this because in the epilogue they come back together to remember those who died there and remember what happened long before. they are there together again like how they were long ago, yet without some of their comrades.
My favorite quote, "They did not wage the Civil War; rather, they endured it.". i believe that this is also a impactful quote because it really emphasizes the hardships and what they experienced and how they were just part of the war they didn't start it and yet they are the ones dealing with it.
The plot is following the 107th Ohio volunteer division which is an immigrant division of ethnic Germans and how they experience the civil war and the battles that they were a part of during the war.
I believe that the theme is brotherhood. I say this because in the epilogue they come back together to remember those who died there and remember what happened long before. they are there together again like how they were long ago, yet without some of their comrades.
My favorite quote, "They did not wage the Civil War; rather, they endured it.". i believe that this is also a impactful quote because it really emphasizes the hardships and what they experienced and how they were just part of the war they didn't start it and yet they are the ones dealing with it.
June 9, 2021
A regimental history of the 107th Ohio volunteer during the American Civil War. Using this approach, Jordan is provide readers with a very personalized perspectives of what it was like to serve during the Civil War. The 107th suffered embarrassing defeats with the XIth corps at both Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in 1863. Following the latter, the heavily German regiment was exiled from the Army of the Potomac and sent to coastal garrison duty in the Carolinas and Florida. Later they joined General Sherman's march up through South Carolina. This is not a battle history of the regiment. Instead, it tells the experiences of the men from their enlistment through to the end of their service, with a few receiving post-war follow-ups. Personally, I found their post-war lives, the injuries that plagued them, the diseases that still lingered, their inability to acclimate back to civilian life as the most interesting part of the whole book.
August 22, 2024
This book follows the 107th Ohio, the 7th all German regiment from the buckeye state, which saw some of the Civil War’s most gruesome killing fields such as Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville, & Fredericksburg. How anyone survives so much led/shrapnel in the air is beyond belief.
The retelling of casualties & thoughts prior to an entire army’s suffering was as descriptive as possible. It touched on the post-war living of those from 107th, where “living” was a gross generalization. The scars of their sacrifice lived with all who once knocked on hells gateway, this taking the lives of so many who took up the Unions call.
It also shared the shameful actions of our government cheating, or even denying, wounded veterans of their pension pay for years. Such a well written remembrance of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to the idea of freedom!!
The retelling of casualties & thoughts prior to an entire army’s suffering was as descriptive as possible. It touched on the post-war living of those from 107th, where “living” was a gross generalization. The scars of their sacrifice lived with all who once knocked on hells gateway, this taking the lives of so many who took up the Unions call.
It also shared the shameful actions of our government cheating, or even denying, wounded veterans of their pension pay for years. Such a well written remembrance of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to the idea of freedom!!
August 1, 2021
Yeah, this didn't do anything for me. Based on the title, I thought it would be an overall look at life in the Union army during the Civil War. Nope. It's just the story of one regiment from Ohio. It's a famous regiment (they were the flank turned by Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville and later in the thick of it at Gettysburg. It was also full of German immigrants). But ... .it's just the story of a regiment. If the author intended to make any broader points, I didn't notice it. This is just the story of a regiment, with no more point than telling the story of a regiment. I ended up skimming a lot more than I read.
April 21, 2022
Although this is a thoroughly academic book, clearly written for scholars of the Civil War, it's hard to evaluate from an academic perspective. It's just heartbreaking. The whole experience of the 107th Ohio Infantry is tragic.
You can tell this book was a labor of love for the author. It's alive with empathy for the soldiers. I'll spare you the academic superfluity and just say this --- if you care to learn about the outrageous sacrifice and suffering of Civil War soldiers, read this book.
You can tell this book was a labor of love for the author. It's alive with empathy for the soldiers. I'll spare you the academic superfluity and just say this --- if you care to learn about the outrageous sacrifice and suffering of Civil War soldiers, read this book.
November 27, 2023
Interesting because it really focused on the “boots on the ground “. Discussion of strategy and politics was limited to how it affected the soldiers. In addition, it stayed with certain units, and thus the same men, throughout and after the war, making for a very personal story.
It mainly dealt with German-Americans from Ohio in the Union Army, but vignettes from other units, and even the enemy's viewpoint were included to give context.
In many ways a sad story (as all true war stories are) but a good read.
It mainly dealt with German-Americans from Ohio in the Union Army, but vignettes from other units, and even the enemy's viewpoint were included to give context.
In many ways a sad story (as all true war stories are) but a good read.
July 16, 2021
An engaging history of the 107th Ohio, a predominantly ethnic German regiment of the American Civil War, "A Thousand May Fall" presents everyday life in the war for average immigrant soldiers in an army full of xenophobia and nativism.
January 21, 2022
Not the greatest Civil War book I've ever read, but a nice regimental history that places the 107th Ohio in the sociocultural context of the time. Jordan presents some new ways of thinking about the soldiers and their role, very much soldier-centered.
January 8, 2023
Finally a history of the107th
My great great grandfather and one of his brothers were in the 107th. I have his military records and his pension records. This book followed and explained their part in the war. It is very well written and very engaging. Loved it.
My great great grandfather and one of his brothers were in the 107th. I have his military records and his pension records. This book followed and explained their part in the war. It is very well written and very engaging. Loved it.
June 22, 2021
A little dry but strong local interest.
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February 2, 2023Great book!
May 27, 2023
Provided no evidence of regiment’s actions during Chancellorsville or Gettysburg.
February 27, 2024
Long, but insightful as it gave good accounting of Ohioans fighting in the war between the states.
January 17, 2022
The ending of the book summarizes the whole experience of the 107th Ohio: "Throughout it's almost three years in the field, the men of the regiment whipsawed between the war's extremes. They trudged through snow-banks and sand bars, sampling victory and defeat. They learned about courage and cowardice, purpose and futility, resolve and despair. They took pride in their pain and solace from suffering, keenly aware that emerging national narratives about the war captured nothing of their experiences. And so the men of the 107th Ohio endure still-urgent voices telling stories about who we are, how our country was saved, and what it means to go to war."
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