The presence of gold in the Rocky Mountains had been rumored in the United States since the Mexican-American War and the gold rush to California. But, when gold nuggets were found in Clear Creek in 1859, the cry Pike's Peak or Bust swept the nation, and the Rush to the Rockies began in earnest. In 1859 and again in 1860, almost 100,000 gold seekers joined the rush. It was into this flood of Pike's Peakers that Dr. Charles M. Clark plunged. From the notes Clark kept during his travels and of his experiences in the gold fields, came A Trip to Pike's Peak & Notes by the Way - perhaps the best...

Intended for Civil War buffs as well as genealogists, this text provides a detailed history of the Illinois Thirty-Ninth Union Regiment, which named itself Yates Phalanx after the governor of the state. Formed in April 1861, the Thirty-Ninth Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry fought in Civil War campaigns from the winter of 1861 to its muster-out on December 6, 1865; indeed, the Thirty-Ninth was the lead regiment that held (and then turned) Lee's forces at Appomattox Court-House. The book contains an eyewitness account written by a regimental surgeon, who supplemented his text with soldiers'...