"If I Have Got to Go and Fight, I Am Willing:" A Union Regiment Forged in the Pe Paperback – December 8, 2015

This in-depth regimental history has virtues, for sure. A detailed review of the Petersburg siege from the perspective of one regiment is something that has been needed. A lot of published material about the 10 months of hell are at the army or strategic level. The author does a nice job creating a compelling story about the regiment’s service. There’s a lot to like. However, it’s not a truly great regimental, for a few reasons. Some of my negatives may seem a bit nit picky, but I was annoyed by the bibliography at the start of every chapter’s notes, as well as the space the author had between the period and footnote number, sometimes leading to the number at the start of a new line. That looks odd. Also, the small font for page text was bothersome. I wish the author was like 99.9999999999% of other Civil War books on the above points. Also, the author should’ve left some of his research findings on the cutting room floor. That’s hard for an author to do sometimes, something I know from personal experience. However, there’s almost too much detail in places. Further editing could’ve made the book a bit crisper as far as flow for the reader. Also, there are too many really small pictures, something that detracts from the overall quality of the book. If you can’t get high resolution photos, that’s unfortunate, but I’d rather have less pictures than shots so small they are pointless.

The 179th New York Volunteer Infantry was not a storied regiment of the Union Army. It did not fight at Antietam or Gettysburg. It experienced trench warfare around Petersburg and fought in four battles in which, fairly viewed, its performance was uneven. No monument to the 179th exists on any battlefield. The 179th was in fact a “high number regiment,” formed late in the war and recruited through high bounties offered by cities and towns seeking to avoid conscription. It lost men not only to battle, and in greater numbers to sickness, but also to desertion and to the horrors of prison camps.The 179th was in fact a group of ordinary men placed in extraordinary circumstances. Ed Rutan’s If I Have Got to Go and Fight, I am Willing, meticulously researched and documented, answers the question: What was it like to be a Union soldier in 1864 and 1865? What was the world like from which the soldier came and to which, if he was lucky, he returned? With chapters covering subjects as diverse as the concept of a “good death,” court martials, prison camps, home towns, and life for surviving veterans when the war was over, Rutan’s comprehensive book is a delight to read and gives one a sense of a world now long past.

this was a great book could not put it down

The 179th New York Volunteer Infantry was raised in the spring of 1864. This late war regiment was initially with the 1X Corps’ and the Army of the Potomac and fought from Cold Harbor to Petersburg and was at Appomattox on April 9, 1863 when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered. This unit fought six battles at Petersburg including the Battle of the Crater, and the battles of Poplar Spring Church, Weldon Railroad and Burgess’ Mill.The main purpose of “If I Have Got to Go And Fight, I Am Willing” is to examine in depth aspects of the citizen-soldier's experiences and to understand what they endured. Edwin Rutan also stresses subjects that have been under-emphasized by other historians and soldiers in regimental histories in the past, while providing a more complete history of individuals in the 179th New York Volunteers. This writer has uncovered many anecdotes from numerous soldiers from his great-great grandfathers regiment which have never been used in other studies. This is the first complete regimental history of these common men from New York. Rutan has provided a valuable service that will allow many academics and students of the Civil War to learn from and enjoy.This history of the 179th New York Volunteers is a comprehensive presentation that is groundbreaking in its analysis, well written, and easy to read. RTD Publications of Park City, Utah has published an affective work that explains these Americans circumstances in dealing with their home towns, reasons for enlisting late in the war, health issues, desertion, prisoner of war camps, religious beliefs, the election of 1864 and post war issues. A personal and accessible narrative that tells a remarkable story yet is grounded in scholarship. This reviewer recommends this title.

Reminds me of the days playing Avalon Hill Games on Yorkshire Rd.! Great job Ed.

This book is a history of the 179th New York Volunteers, a regiment that performed admirably during the Civil War. If you are not a Civil War buff, you may think the book holds nothing of interest for you, but read it anyway. While it does explore campaign strategies, troop movements, and battles in extraordinary, well-documented detail, it also provides an intimate look into the daily lives of the common soldier. Primary sources, such as letters written to loved ones, describe the joys and sorrows of a soldier’s life. We see courage and cowardice, faith and doubt, death glorified in battle, and far more death from dirty, smelly diseases such as dysentery. We read of life in a POW camp: “And the nights … were becoming very cold and rainy. … We would sleep in piles, about a hundred in a pile. Some would sleep under for a while, then those on top of the pile would root down so as to take their turn at getting warm.”Rutan’s book is clearly a labor of love. It is over 500 pages long, and it is well worth the time it takes to read it.