Rally Round the Flag: Uniforms of the Union Volunteers of 1861

This volume examines what the citizen soldiery of the New England States wore when they marched off to save the Union in 1861. An exhaustive search of thousands of newspapers yielded a myriad of reports and personal accounts from soldiers’ letters, which together offer a hitherto unpublished view of the stirring events during the first few months of the Civil War. Combined with fascinating detail from numerous diaries and regimental histories, the author is able to describe the appearance of the Union volunteers of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. The narrative is enhanced by photographs of original uniform items from private collections, plus imagery of the day showing the great variety of clothing and headgear worn. Accepted by The Company of Military Historians, this is an essential reference for collectors, living historians, modellers, and curators, as well as anyone with a general interest in the Civil War. AUTHOR: Ron Field was born in Hertford, England, in 1943 and was Head of History at The Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, U.K. until his retirement in 2007. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1982 and taught History at Piedmont High School from 1982-83. He was Associate Editor of the Journal of The Confederate Historical Society of Great Britain from 1983 to 1992, and was elected a Fellow of The Company of Military Historians based in Washington, DC, in 2005. In 2012 he was awarded the William K. Emerson Award for his article The New Hampshire Volunteers of 1861, which forms a chapter in this volume. He is a senior editor of Military Images magazine, and has written over 30 books and numerous articles on 19th century military history. 165 colour and b/w photographs