“To Transmit and Perpetuate the Fruits of This Victory:” Union Regimental Histories, 1865-1866, and the Meaning of the Great Rebellion

This essay seeks to investigate how Union soldiers viewed the meaning of the Civil War by examining the genre of regimental histories. It discusses the production of Northern regimental histories and the authors who wrote them before moving to a close analysis of the large numbers of histories that appeared in 1865 and 1866. Before the quite stunning content of these histories may be analyzed, the context of their production must be described at some length.

Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.