The Mississippi 39th Infantry Regiment was organized at Jackson, Mississippi, during the late spring of 1862. About twenty-five percent of this unit was sick in June, and there were 29 officers and 541 men present for duty in July. Company I took part in the fight at Baton Rouge, then, assigned to General Beall's command, the regiment was captured at Port Hudson in July, 1863. After the exchange in December it totalled 220 effectives. Attached to Ross' and Sears' Brigade it was involved in the Atlanta Campaign, Hood's Tennessee operations, and the defense of Mobile. The regiment reported 7 casualties at New Hope Church, 30 at Kennesaw Mountain, 5 at the Chattahoochee River, and 48 in the Battle of Atlanta. Few surrendered with the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.

The Mississippi 4th Infantry Regiment was organized at Grenada as the Fourth Regiment, Second Brigade, Army of Mississippi, and enlisted for twelve months. The Fourth was among the troops posted at Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, under General Lloyd Tilghman. The troops were transferred to Fort Donelson and there captured. Following exchange they were then surrendered at Vicksburg and continued throughout the remainder of the war in the Atlanta Campaign, Franklin, and Nashville, ending the war in the defense of Mobile.

The 29th Mississippi Infantry Regiment 29th Infantry Regiment was organized at Corinth, Mississippi, in April, 1862 with men from Grenada, Lafayette, Panola, Yalobusha, Washington, and De Soto counties. The unit served in Mississippi, then moved to Kentucky where it saw action in Munfordville. Later it joined the Army of Tennessee and was placed in General Walthall's and Brantly's Brigade where it participated in many battles from Murfreesboro to Bentonville. The 29th lost 5 killed and 36 wounded at Munfordville, had 34 killed and 202 wounded at Murfreesboro, and suffered fifty-three percent disabled of the 364 engaged at Chickamauga. It reported 191 casualties at Chattanooga and in December, 1863 was consolidated with the 30th and 34th Regiment and totalled 554 men and 339 arms. This unit reported 5 killed and 22 wounded at Resaca, and in the fight at Ezra Church the 29th/30th lost 8 killed and 20 wounded. Very few surrendered in North Carolina in April, 1865.

After a series of victories through Mississippi early in the spring of 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee had reached the critical point in its campaign to capture Vicksburg. Taking the city on the hill would allow the Union to control the Mississippi River and would divide the Confederacy in half. Confederate morale was low, and a Union victory in the war appeared close before the start of Grant’s assault against General John C. Pemberton’s Army of Mississippi. But due to difficult terrain, strong defenses, and uncoordinated movements, the quick triumph Grant desired was unattainable. On the afternoon of May 19, with little rest, preparation, or reconnaissance, Union forces charged the Confederate lines only to be repulsed. A respite between the assaults allowed both sides to reinforce their positions. Early on May 22 the Union artillery sought to soften the stronghold’s defenses before the general attack, but despite the Union forces’ preparation, the fighting proved even more disorganized and vicious. Again Grant failed to move Pemberton. Not wanting to risk more soldiers in a third attack, Grant conceded to the necessity of laying siege. Confederate morale climbed as the Southerners realized they had held their ground against an overwhelming force. Editors Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear have assembled five captivating essays that examine Grant’s unsuccessful assaults against Confederate defensive lines around Vicksburg. Ranging from military to social history, the essays further historical debates on prominent topics, such as the reactions of Midwesterners to the first failures of Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. Two essays from opposing sides analyze the controversial decisions surrounding the Railroad Redoubt, the site of the bloodiest fighting on May 22. Another investigates how the tenacity of Texan reinforcements forced Union soldiers to abandon their gains. Peppered with first-hand observations and bolstered by an impressive depth of research, this anthology is an invitingly written account and comprehensive assessment. By zeroing in on the two assaults, the contributors offer essential clarity and understanding of these important events within the larger scope of the Civil War’s Vicksburg Campaign.

Confederate Artillery Organizations: An Alphabetical Listing of the Officers and Batteries of the Confederacy, 1861–1865 is a remarkable, immensely useful, and exceedingly rare book containing the names of the officers and every Confederate artillery unit. It is so rare that most scholars in the field don’t even know of its existence. It was originally published as simply Confederate Artillery Organizations by the U.S. War Department in 1898, one of Marcus J.Wright’s compilation aids to help assemble and organize the massive publication that would appear as the 128-volume The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1880-1901), known to researchers and students alike as simply Official Records. Editor Ray Sibley spent more than a decade researching the thousands of entries, correcting mistakes, and adding many artillery units and additional officers unknown to the original compilers more than a century ago. Sibley utilized archival records, manuscripts, letters, diaries, and other sources to verify the original work, correct mistakes, and add further useful information in the form of hundreds of valuable footnotes. This new updated and easy-to-use reference work sets forth the linage of the Confederate artillery. It lists, in alphabetical order, individual batteries to artillery regiments, the names and alternate names for the batteries and the names of the men who led them. Also included are the dates of acceptance into Confederate service for each unit. Most companies have an annotation that includes an alternate name (if there was one), and the date if a unit disbanded or was merged into another organization.The annotations for officers include date of appointment, date of promotion to a higher grade (if any), date of transfers (if any), date dropped from rolls (if any), and date relieved of command (if any). Confederate Artillery Organizations also contains four rare and hard-to-find lists of Confederate artillery officers: “Memorandum of Artillery Officers, C. S. A.,” “List of Officers Corps of Artillery, C. S. Army, on U.S. Register of 1861,” “Superintendents of Armories,” and “Military Store-Keeper of Ordnance.” These lists illustrate the ranking of each officer in his respective grade. The extensive bibliography prepared by Mr. Sibley is an invaluable guide to Civil War historiography. Scholars, researchers, and students of the Civil War will be thankful Ray Sibley turned his considerable talents to this project. His tireless efforts made sure this rare book got back into print (including all digital formats), and turned what was once a valuable rare work into a reference book that is now both widely available and absolutely indispensable.