The Untried Life - by James T Fritsch (Paperback)

About the Book

Told in unflinching detail, this is the story of the Twenty-Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Giddings Regiment or the Abolition Regiment, after its founder, radical abolitionist Congressman J. R. Giddings.

Book Synopsis

Told in unflinching detail, this is the story of the Twenty-Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Giddings Regiment or the Abolition Regiment, after its founder, radical abolitionist Congressman J. R. Giddings. The men who enlisted in the Twenty-Ninth OVI were, according to its lore, handpicked to ensure each was as pure in his antislavery beliefs as its founder. Whether these soldiers would fight harder than other soldiers, and whether the people of their hometowns would remain devoted to the ideals of the regiment, were questions that could only be tested by the experiment of war.

The Untried Life is the story of these men from their very first regimental formation in a county fairground to the devastation of Gettysburg and the march to Atlanta and back again, enduring disease and Confederate prisons. It brings to vivid life the comradeship and loneliness that pervaded their days on the march. Dozens of unforgettable characters emerge, animated by their own letters and diaries: Corporal Nathan Parmenter, whose modest upbringing belies the eloquence of his writings; Colonel Lewis Buckley, one of the Twenty-Ninth's most charismatic officers; and Chaplain Lyman Ames, whose care of the sick and wounded challenged his spiritual beliefs.

The Untried Life shows how the common soldier lived-his entertainments, methods of cooking, medical treatment, and struggle to maintain family connections-and separates the facts from the mythology created in the decades after the war.

Review Quotes

"The reader who buys this book will be rewarded with a wealth of information that sheds light not only on the experiences of the 29th Ohio but likely applies in many respects to Federal infantry units across the board. This up-close examination of a Civil War regiment is strongly recommended."
-- Civil War News

"The Untried Life provides a view of the Civil War from the soldier on the ground. Using letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts, the book offers an unfiltered view of the challenges, hardships, and personal sacrifices the soldiers faced and confirms the major role Ohio played in the Civil War. The book is a must read for both the amateur and professional historian of the Civil War."--Donald C. Maness, coeditor of Do They Miss Me at Home? The Civil War Letters of William McKnight, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

"James Fritsch has written more than simply a regimental history of the 29th Ohio Infantry. Through his skill as a writer and researcher he breathes life into these young men from Ohio and we feel their hopes and joys, fear and suffering, through four years of war as if we were one of them. This is history at its best." --D. Scott Hartwig, historian, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

"The detail (in The Untried Life) is fascinating. At times so plentiful the book feels like a real-time march, these particulars ultimately give the story its unexpectedly emotional resonance. A meticulous, human-scale history that lends new immediacy to events of 150 years ago, The Untried Life rewards the reader who sticks with it."--The Plain Dealer

"This book is an excellent reminder that the Civil War was an extraordinary national struggle but...was also an individual struggle for men in the ranks and those left at home."--Ohio History

About the Author

James T. Fritsch devoted fifteen years to researching the story of the Twenty-Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.