Tells the little known story of the five
hundred volunteers from California known as the "California
Hundred and Battalion", who fought in the East during the
Civil War years 1863-1865 as a part of the Second Massachusetts
Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Genealogists, teachers, researchers,
and historians will gain new insights into California's involvement
in the Civil War in the East, which has been largely overlooked.
Hardcover - 219 pages (October 2001)
McFarland & Company
The Second Massachusetts Cavalry included
the only organized group (5 companies totaling 504 men) from
California to fight in the east during the Civil War. Led by
a young Boston aristocrat, Colonel Charles R. Lowell, these men
began their wartime careers in Northern Virginia in 1862, clashing
with the partisan rangers of Major John S. Mosby, in a deadly
world of guerrilla warfare. In August of 1864, the regiment was
assigned to Major General Phil Sheridan's Army of Shenandoah
and served through all of the battles in the victorious campaign
to clear the valley of Confederates, witnessing the final surrender
at Appomattox Courthouse. This account tells what these men from
California and Massachusetts accomplished, how they communicated,
and how they viewed themselves. The book contains three appendices
that list the battle casualties of the regiment during its largest
engagements. Photographs and a bibliography are also included
California
Sabers: The 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in the Civil War by James McLean
Hardcover (December 2000)
Indiana University Press
This is the story of the California Battalion and Hundred, a
group of 500 select men who were the only organized group of
Californians to fight in the East during the Civil War--as the
cadre of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. The Second Massachusetts
fought a bloody guerilla war against John S. Mosby, the confederacy's
"Gray Ghost," and then went on to battles across Virginia
and finally to a stand that blocked Lee's army at Appomattox.
This work, based on extensive research, is the first comprehensive
history of this relatively unknown group and will be of great
interest to Civil War enthusiasts and historians.
by Sergeant George Hand and Edited by
Neil B. Carmody
Paperback. Published by High Lonesome
Books. 1996
The edited diary of a member of the California
Volunteers operating against Confederate forces and sympathizers
in the Southwest. Insight into what is a forgotten part of the
Civil War.