Taking a broad view of the Union soldiers’ experience in the Petersburg campaign, If I Have Got to Go and Fight, I Am Willing covers in depth not just the battles, but also subjects such as motivations for enlistment, ties with home, medical care, religious faith, citizen-soldiers, the 1864 election, prisoners of war, desertion, the post-war lives of the soldiers, and even the weather. A fighting regiment, the 179th New York Volunteers served in the Petersburg campaign from start to finish. The 179th New York was in the first wave at the Battle of the Crater and in the Ninth Corps’ final assault on April 2, 1865. The 179th also fought at Petersburg in the June 17, 1864 assault and at Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church and Burgess Mill. Earl J. Hess, author of fifteen books about the Civil War, highly recommends
If I Have Got to Go and Fight, I Am Willing for all Civil War students and historians. He writes that: Edwin Rutan has produced a labor of love in this history of the 179th New York, a late war regiment that experienced the worst of campaigning and battle while serving with the Ninth Corps during the Petersburg campaign. Digging deeply into the personal records and papers of its members, Rutan’s social history of the regiment that his great-great grandfather served in pays rich dividends for those interested in the experiences of Civil War soldiers caught up in the last grueling year of the conflict. … If I Have Got to Go and Fight I Am Willing is highly recommended for all Civil War students and historians. (Earl J. Hess, author of Into the Crater: The Mine Attack at Petersburg) Lesley J. Gordon, author of A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War, concludes that: This study provides a wealth of information and thoughtful analysis throughout. Gordon writes that: The 179th New York was not a typical unit–raised late in the war and riddled with desertion and high casualty numbers, it was a regiment often overlooked and discredited as less committed to the war than the first wave of Union volunteers. However, Rutan’s painstakingly researched book follows the regiment’s history carefully, exploring who made up the ranks and why, the challenges men faced and in his words ‘the reality of the soldier experience.’ Their reality matched that of most common soldiers only it was condensed into a shorter amount of time, with perhaps greater challenges. Rutan examines their home communities, their complicated motivations to enlist, struggles with demoralization, disease, imprisonment and brutal combat. There is little romanticized here, yet Rutan demonstrates that for the 179th NY survivors, as was true for most all Civil War veterans, their military service came to be the defining experience of their lives. This study provides a wealth of information and thoughtful analysis throughout. (Lesley J. Gordon, author of A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War (Louisiana State University Press 2015) Mark Dunkelman, author of War’s Relentless Hand: Twelve Tales of Civil War Soldiers, says that If I Have Got to Go and Fight, I Am Willing is a unique regimental history.
