Mother, May You Never See the Sights I Have Seen: The Fifty-Seventh Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers in the Army of the Potomac, 1864-1865

I bought this book at a book sale simply to read on a long ferry crossing in 1993. I was so enthralled that it's never been too far away from my side ever since. It covers the 57th Mass from the days in late 1863 and their formation, and follows them through their training and their departure from Camp Wool for the front as part of Grant's "Overland Campaign" in 1864/65. Once they set out on their march, the journey is described in such graphic detail that the reader becomes almost like a member of the regiment marching with them. Reading the stories of the battles, you can feel the pain that the author manages to convey as he describes how the soldiers are blown away at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and the Crater until at the Weldon Railroad there are only 30 soldiers left standing. Not only that, Wilkinson includes a detailed account of soldier life, life at Andersonville, and has painstakingly researched the military life of every single one of the 1038 soldiers that made up the regiment in such detail that he has corrected many errors that seeped into common knowledge after the war, including some in the regiment's own history of 1896. In May 2005 I was lucky enough to have a few days free in Virginia during a business trip to the USA, and so, armed with a rental car and this book, I traced the route of the 57th from the Germanna Ford to their final and climactic appointment with fate at Fort Stedman. Thanks to this book, it was one of the most enlightening and informative journeys I have ever made. I recommend this book to anyone, and consider it essential reading for any Civil War buff.