William Francis Bartlett

Frank Bartlett was an indifferent student at Harvard when the Civil War began in 1861, but after he joined the Union army he quickly found that he had an aptitude for leadership and rose from captain to brevet major general by 1865. Over the course of the war he was wounded three times (one injury resulted in the loss of a leg), but he remained on active duty until he was captured in 1864. His political stance gained him some national fame after the war, but he struggled with repeated business stress until tuberculosis and other illnesses led to his early death at age 36.

Richard A. Sauers is the director of the Western Museum of Mining and Industry in Colorado Springs. He has written more than twenty books about the Civil War period.
Martin H. Sable, a retired professor from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, lives in Mequon, Wisconsin.

Richard A. Sauers and Martin H. Sable
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 215
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4146-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1068-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1
Introduction      3

1. “He Was Not a Close Student”: Prelude to War      5
2. “Captain Bartlett Is One of the Noblest Fellows”: The Harvard Regiment      12
3. “One of the Most Complete Slaughter Pens Ever Devised”: The Battle of Ball’s Bluff      21
4. “Our Regiment Met with the Greatest Loss”: The Road to Yorktown      35
5. “We Are Learning Subordination Without Complaining”: The 49th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry      48
6. “Oh, How Good Berkshire Water Would Sell Here”: The Department of the Gulf      59
7. “We Thought Him Too Brave a Man to Be Killed”: Port Hudson      73
8. “I Must Do the Best I Can”: Into the Wilderness with the 57th Massachusetts      91
9. “Danger of Being Hit Any Minute”: The Siege of Petersburg      105
10. “It Was Pandemonium Let Loose”: The Crater      112
11. “A Horrible Dream Which I Can Never Forget”: Prisoner of War      136
12. “I Think It Would Be Hard to Find Two Happier People”: War’s End      144
13. “United We Are Invincible”: The Postwar Years      152
14. “No Greater or Purer Hero”: Frank Bartlett’s Legacy      171

Chapter Notes      185
Bibliography      201
Index      205

“a fine work”—North & South; “for more than a century Bartlett’s legacy essentially disappeared. Luckily, authors Richard A. Sauers and Martin H. Sable have rescued this general’s memory through the publication of their eloquently written and superbly researched biography. The authors do an excellent job of placing Bartlett in the larger context of the war, but do not make the mistake of losing sight of their subject in discussions of strategy and tactics. Sauers and Sable are to be commended for this volume which rescues a true American hero from obscurity”—Civil War News.