Written in Blood; A History of teh 126th New York Infantry in the Civil War. by Wayne Mahood. 557pp., Notes, Biblio., Indices, Roster, 20 maps, over 50 Illus.

"Written in Blood," A History of the 126th New York Infantry in the Civil War

By Wayne Mahood

This is the story of a maligned regiment whose history was ultimately "written in blood." Less than a month after mustering, the 126th, from the Finger Lakes area of New York, was captured with the 39th, 111th and 125th N.Y. at Harpers Ferry in mid September 1862. The still green soldiers, saddled with the sobriquet "Cowards of Harpers Ferry," then suffered two months of obloquy at Chicago's Camp Douglas, created to house Confederate prisoners. Released in late November, they drilled under tough regular, Brig. Gen. Alex Hays and joined the honored Second Corps. At Gettysburg, the 126th exceeded all expectations in the Wheatfield, July 2, and repeated its performance the next day on Cemetery Ridge. But, the price was high - the loss of their regimental commander and a total of 231 casualties (almost 51%) while capturing Confederate flags, for which three members received Medals of Honor.

With the regiment's good name restored, it later was engaged in the brutal Overland Campaign of 1864, and that Fall, it was, like the corps itself, barely a remnant. By the time the surrender messages passed through the regiment's thinned ranks in 1865, the 126th had become one of Foxís "Fighting 300," a reputation its members would recall at annual reunions until 1935 and the death of its last member.