On March 18, a book signing at Binghamton University\u2019s Spring Craft Fair featured local authors, Mary Jordan and Joyce Hatch, who presented their new book – The 109th New York Volunteers Remembered: 1862 \u2013 1865. <\/p>\n
The 109th New York Volunteers Remembered: 1862 \u2013 1865 is a sequel to the author\u2019s prior publications of Dear Friend Amelia: The Civil War Letters of Private John Tidd and Aunt Becky\u2019s Army Life. The research for this book spanned a period of 40 years of intermittent research by Mary Jordan and Joyce Hatch. <\/p>\n
The author\u2019s goal for this new book is to reveal the real heroes of the war, the common soldier, told in their own words, transcribed verbatim in chronological order from letters and diaries of 54 of the soldiers of the 109th. <\/p>\n
The accounts of camp life, forced marches and the many battles fought can best be told through the soldier\u2019s own words. This book allows the reader to follow along in the footsteps of these brave soldiers from their enlistment to the end of the war when those that survived were transported home. <\/p>\n
This book includes Appendix A: One Hundred Ten photographs of the soldiers of the 109th, and Appendix B: The Revised 1910 Adjutant with bibliographies and genealogical information on several of the soldiers and their families with several additional names added and corrections made to the original work. <\/p>\n
Also included are tables that depict the distribution of the 1,373 soldiers who served throughout the war, showing the number killed in action, death from disease and etc., after each year and each battle. <\/p>\n
In addition to the letters and diaries of the soldiers and officers, Newspaper Accounts; Official Records of the Rebellion; Historical photographs depicting places and events experienced by the soldiers and stories written by the soldiers are included. <\/p>\n
The 109th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was raised in Broome, Tioga and Tompkins County in July and August of 1862. War meetings were played out throughout the 24th District by recruiting officers to raise the required ten companies of 100 men, meeting the quota for a full regiment of 1,000 soldiers. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, Aug. 29, the 109th Regiment left Camp Susquehanna in Binghamton, N.Y. for Annapolis Junction, Md. There for 14 months, the 109th guarded the railroad, bridges, and telegraph poles from Baltimore to Washington. Their primary duty was to keep open the only lines of railroad tracks from Baltimore to the Capital, extremely important in supplying troops and supplies to the Army of the Potomac. <\/p>\n
In mid-January 1864, the 109th (known at this time derisively as the Band Box Railroad Regiment) were assigned new duties of escorting newly drafted soldiers to their units at the front. In April of 1864 the regiment was assimilated into the 9th Corps, 1st Brigade, 3rd Division under General Ambrose Burnside. <\/p>\n
On April 27, the 109th left Binghamton for the front and after several days of marching. On May 6, they saw action for the first time in the Battle of the Wilderness followed by grisly warfare in the Battles of Spotsylvania, Ny River, North Anna River, Totopotomoy Creek, Shady Grove Road, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, Assaults and Siege of Petersburg, Friend\u2019s House, Norfolk and Petersburg Road, King George C.H. Road at the Hare House, Mine Explosion and Battle of the Crater, Weldon Railroad, Globe Tavern, Reams Station, Rifle Pits on the Weldon Railroad, Poplar Grove Church, Boydton Road, Warren\u2019s Raid on Weldon Railroad, Fort Steadman, Fort Sedgwick, Fort Mahone and the final battle at Petersburg.<\/p>\n