Galvanized Yankees on the Upper Missouri: The Face of Loyalty

Only a handful of historians have explored the unique nature of the Galvanised Yankees -- Confederate prisoners of war permitted to enlist in the Union army -- and the role they played in the West during the Civil War. Rarer still are detailed studies of individual regiments. Michele Tucker Butts sheds welcome light on the triumphs and travails of one such unit, the First United States Volunteers and their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dimon. Their story provides a telescopic view of issues that would sweep the nation for the remainder of the nineteenth century: the promise and anxiety inherent in post-Civil War nation building, the complexities involved in westward expansion, and the changing nature of mid-nineteenth century manhood. Butts seamlessly maintains a human face on events of national import, punctuating her thoroughly researched narrative with excerpts from Dimon's letters home. This compelling account of the First United States Volunteers will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in the Civil War as well as Western and military history.