Bridge building in wartime
Subtitle: Colonel Wesley Brainerd's memoir of the 50th New York Volunteer Engineers
By: edited by Ed Malles.
Contributors: Malles, Ed.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Voices of the Civil War; Voices of the Civil War series.
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 415
Subjects: Brainerd, Wesley, 1832-1910.; United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 50th (1861-1865); Soldiers -- New York (State) -- Biography.; Military engineers -- New York (State) -- Biography.; Bridges -- United States -- Design and construction -- History -- 19th century.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Engineering and construction.; New York (State) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Description: This book, containing the detailed recollections of a Union combat engineer, will add immeasurably to our understanding of the logistical complexities of the Civil War campaigns and introduce an important new point of view amid the array of available Civil War diaries and memoirs.

Wesley Brainerd was a twenty-eight-year-old businessman living in Rome, New York, when the war erupted in 1861. Enlisting after the first Battle of Bull Run and eventually achieving the rank of colonel, he served as an officer in both regiments of the Volunteer Engineer Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, a unit that distinguished itself throughout the war by building bridges, fortifications, batteries, roads, and temporary shelters.

After the war, Brainerd drew on his diaries to recount his experiences in a memoir originally written for his son.

As appealing in style as it is informative, Brainerd's account is told with a strong sense of the war's importance and of the part his unit played in the larger scheme of things. Modest and truthful, Brainerd sought to relate the story of his service in a meaningful and straightforward way, ever mindful of the lessons he had learned and that he wanted to impart to his son.

Now available with carefully researched annotations and an introduction, this unique document will fill and important gap in the literature of the Civil War.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [400]-404) and index.
Table of contents: title: My dear son; title: Elmira; title: Washington & Halls Hill, 1861; title: Halls Hill and Camp Lesley, 1861; title: Commencement of the Peninsular campaign, 1862; title: Yorktown, White House and Fair Oaks or Seven Pines, 1862; title: The seven days battles and end of the Peninsular campaign, 1862; title: Second Bull Run, Antietam, Harper's Ferry & Berlin, 1862; title: Preliminary operations before Fredricksburgh, 1862; title: Fredricksburgh, 1862; title: After Fredricksburgh : leave of absence and return, 1862-1863; title: Winter on the Rappahannock, 1863; title: Chancellorsville, May 1863; title: Deep Run or Franklins Crossing, June 1863; title: Gettysburgh, 1863; title: After Gettysburgh, 1863; title: The campaign of manoeuvres, court martial and winter quarters, 1863-1864; title: Commencement of campaign of 1864; title: Review of second corps, crossing of the Rapidan and commencement of the Battle of the Wilderness from April 22nd to May 7th, 1864; title: The Wilderness, Fredricksburgh and Spotsylvania, May 1864; title: Bowling Greene, the Pamunkey, North Anna and Cold Harbor, May & June 1864; title: Cold Harbor, the James River and arrval at Petersburgh, June 1864.