With the Trotting Twelfth

My First Campaignby J. W. GrantReminiscences of Service with the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteersby Pardon E. TillinghastRhode Islanders for the UnionThis American Civil War volume by Joseph Grant and Pardon E. Tillinghast brings together two accounts that today would be unlikely to see individual re-publication because of their short length. They concern the time the authors spent with their regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers during the conflict. Grant particularly was much concerned with the activities of the regiment and also became a significant contributor to the substantial published history of the regiment. The twelfth was one of the so called ’Nine Month Regiments’ though it actually served for ten months. Whilst the regiment’s service was comparatively short it earned the appellation of ’the Trotting Twelfth’ partly as a result of its incredible march from Nicholasville to Jamestown, Kentucky-some 100 miles under broiling sun-in six days without the loss of a single man. Indeed the regiment’s marching abilities became legendary and its name well earned as it pursued the elusive Morgan and his cavalry across Kentucky to prevent him raiding into Ohio. This included a lively affair with the notable Confederate raider horse soldiers at Green River, Kentucky. Grant’s view of the Battle of Fredericksburg is particularly useful and indeed he was responsible for the portion of the greater regimental history concerning it. At Fredericksburg in the closing month of 1862, Burnside had to ferry his army across the Rappahannock River in the face of fire from the enemy on the opposite bank and once across fight through the streets of the town before assaulting well prepared Confederate entrenched positions under Lee on Maryes Heights. The affair was a notable one-sided catastrophe for the Union Army which lost nearly 13,000 men killed, wounded, missing or captured-more than twice that of the enemy. Grant, Tillinghast and their Rhode Island comrades, irrespective of their short service, more than earned their right to proclaim themselves seasoned ’veterans.’Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.