In addition, the soldiers usually submitted the pension forms more than twenty-five years after the war. Because of the sparse nature of the source material, any narrative of an African-American regiment would be handicapped. Unfortunately, Miller did not improve the situation by the way that he utilized the records. For almost every one of the ten companies of the regiment, he details the backgrounds of many of the soldiers. Since there is little information about each individual, however, this recitation is brief, largely repetitious, and full of suppositions.
Little improvement is gained from the repetition.
Another problem concerns the regiment's only major battle. Although there is a great deal of information about the Battle of the Crater, there is insufficient about the actions of the Twenty-ninth. As a result, Miller has done little but write a detailed account of the battle. Finally, Miller provides little analysis of the history of the regiment. Even with the paucity of sources, he has made no attempt to assess the similarities or differences of the history of the regiment with that of white regiments.