More Profiles of Union Colonels

This is the fifth Hunt’s Colonels in Blue biographical guides to Union colonels, a series that has now covered about half the states, and is likely to run to four or five volumes more, given the remaining states and also personnel commissioned in the Regular Army, United States Colored Troops, and other federal branches of the Union service.  As in the case of Hunt’s earlier volumes, the listing is confined to officers who rose no higher than colonel; officers promoted to general are already covered in Ezra Warner’s Generals in Blue and those with brevet promotions to general in Hunt’s own earlier Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue.

Officers are grouped by their states.  Each section opens with a list of the state’s regiments and their commanders during the war, including home guard and militia units.  The commanding officers of each regiment are included, in chronological order.  All the colonels from the state are then listed in alphabetical order.  Where possible, Hunt includes a photograph or other image.  Entries, although rarely more than a column long, open with an outline of the man’s military service, including his dates of mustering in, promotions, and mustering out, as well as campaign participation and honors.  This is followed by some biographical details, usually including prior military service, occupation, and residence, plus the location of his burial, and some references.  For many men there are short comments or anecdotal observations on their service by themselves, other officers, or historians.  In most cases Hunt’s brief notices are the only biographical treatment these officers have ever had. 

An indispensable reference for anyone working in Civil War history, this volume, and Hunt’s other works, are also of great value to genealogists and local historians.

Note:   Colonels in Blue -- Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee is also available as an e-book, ISBN 978-1-4766-1386-4.  StrategyPage has previously reviewed Colonels in Blue--Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

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