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'...