Brothers One and All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment (Book Review)

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Reviewed by Eric Ethier
By Mark Dunkelman
Louisiana State University Press

Recent studies of the Civil War soldier, author Mark Dunkelman asserts, have acknowledged the importance of regimental esprit de corps to a successful unit. No one, however, has thoroughly examined the building blocks of this intangible, how it was manifested within a regiment, and how it affected fighting. In Brothers One and All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment, Dunkelman traces the spirit of one unit, the 154th Regiment, New York State Infantry Volunteers, and in the process writes one of the best and most revealing books on soldiering yet published.

From the unit’s birth in the far western fields of New York, Dunkelman details the development of the "Hardtack Regiment" into a cohesive band. Connected by community and profession (most were farmers), the New Yorkers developed bonds, Dunkelman argues, the same way most other regiments did: through the emotional ups and downs of training, campaigning, fighting, tenting and suffering together. The closeness that developed from these trials spurred deeper pride in the unit, allowed the regiment to survive galling losses at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and drove the men to new heights of esprit and battlefield valor.

Regimental esprit, the author states, was best demonstrated by the unit’s intention to publish its history. In a touching closing chapter, Dunkelman describes how the regiment’s survivors waited in vain for an egocentric New Yorker named E.D. Northrup to publish their story.

"There is something about war that makes me feel mad all the time," one Hardtacker stated. "I feel as though I would like to fight somebody and I don’t care who it is."

This type of intimate sentiment separates Brothers One and All from other books of its kind. Written with zeal and compassion, Dunkelman’s effort adds to our understanding of the common soldier, furthering the work of Bell Wiley, James McPherson and others. Brothers One and All should firmly establish the importance of esprit de corps to the Civil War regiment. Perhaps more important for the author (who, with Michael J. Winey, authored the 154th’s official history, The Hardtack Regiment, and whose great-grandfather served with the regiment), he has now more fully succeeded where the dishonorable Northrup failed.

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