Booknotes: In the Thickest of the Fray

New Arrival:

• In the Thickest of the Fray: Mississippians At Gettysburg - In Their Own Words by Joseph L. Owen & J. Douglas Ashton, eds. (Fox Run Pub, 2024)

With Union forces cutting a swath of destruction across the heart of their home state and the Lower Mississippi Valley's principal army of defenders bottled up tightly at Vicksburg, the Mississippians of Lee's army camped in Virginia must have been highly distracted by the seemingly constant stream of bad news from out west. Nevertheless, the upcoming campaign north into Pennsylvania would soon command their full attention.

From the description: "The Magnolia State sent eleven infantry regiments and one artillery battery to Gettysburg," and the officers and men that fought with those units left behind a rich record of their experiences during the campaign and battle. "The individual memories were published in newspaper articles, written in diaries, and recorded in interviews throughout the lives of the veterans."

More: In the Thickest of the Fray: Mississippians At Gettysburg - In Their Own Words "is the first book collecting the recollections of the common Mississippi soldiers who fought at Gettysburg and in the Pennsylvania Campaign. Tracking from the march to Pennsylvania, on each of the three days, and through the retreat back into Virginia, this work describes what the soldiers related about their participation in the great battle.."

In addition to organizing the material into chapters, editors Joseph Owen and J. Douglas Ashton contribute footnotes and, in select places, bridging text. They also introduce the volume with a summary of Mississippi's contributions to the Confederate war effort and provide brief organizational histories of the Mississippi brigades attached to Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the Gettysburg Campaign. An appendix listing Confederate Army recruitment numbers by state, reveals that Mississippi, though it didn't contribute the most men of any other state in terms of raw numbers, did (according to this table) put the highest percentage of its total white population into Confederate ranks. The other appendix supplements the earlier organizational summaries with detailed, company-level orders of battle for Mississippi troops that fought in the campaign.

In addition to including a good number of Mississippi soldier photos and other images, the book also contains nine fine maps that further highlight Mississippi's role in the campaign and battle.