Booknotes: The 117th New York Infantry in the Civil War

New Arrival:
• The 117th New York Infantry in the Civil War: A History and Roster by James S. Pula (McFarland, 2023).

Organized in Oneida County, New York in response to Lincoln's urgent summer 1862 call for 300,000 more volunteers, the 117th New York Volunteer Infantry (nicknamed the "4th Oneida Regiment") was placed under the command of West Point-trained Col. William R. Pease. After training and some initial seasoning through Washington D.C. area garrison duty, the regiment was shipped off to SE Virginia. Attached to the Seventh Corps, the 117th NY was involved in the 1863 Suffolk siege as well as Dix's Peninsula campaign of that year.

Subsequently transferred to the Tenth Corps in South Carolina, the regiment participated in Charleston siege operations on Folly and Morris islands until April of 1864. With the Overland Campaign in Virginia in full swing soon after, the 117th returned to front line duty in the eastern theater with the Army of the James, fighting in the Bermuda Hundred campaign and other battles on the Richmond-Petersburg front. Later, the unit participated in both major efforts at capturing Fort Fisher (unsuccessfully in December 1864 and successfully mere weeks later in January 1865), before marching through Wilmington and triumphantly entering Raleigh on April 13. The role played by the 117th NY in all of these events is recounted in James Pula's The 117th New York Infantry in the Civil War.

In creating this study, the author relied on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including extensive archival research in diaries and correspondence. The detailed narrative derived from that research is supported by a fine-looking set of campaign and battlefield maps. Among other items of interest, the appendix section that follows it contains an extensive unit roster that significantly adds to the book's value.

Much like the Connecticut unit history I reviewed last week, this study follows a regiment with a less than conventional eastern theater service history. In a publishing category understandably crowded with regiments closely tied to the Army of the Potomac, it's always refreshing to come across something different.