George Christman Bradley

Surviving Stonewall George Christman Bradley

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, hundreds of thousands of men volunteered to fight to end the rebellion in the southern states. In August and September 1861, nearly 1,000 of them stepped forward to become members of the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, agreeing to give their country three years of their lives, never thinking the war would last so long. Over the course of the next two years, they would arrive on five major battlefields. In four of those conflicts, they would face rebels fighting for the brilliant battlefield commander, Stonewall Jackson. Of the nearly 1,000 volunteers who left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in September 1861, fewer than 250 would arrive at Gettysburg in July 1863. Those men not only survived Stonewall, but they outlived him, after he fell very near where they were located at the Battle of Chancellorsville, just two months before. Most of those survivors would carry on until the war was finally won two years later. This book details the service these men saw from the start of the war through Gettysburg. Uniquely, Bradley has delved into more than 1,100 pension files these veterans, or their survivors, created when seeking compensation from the government for the service they suffered through. He has written a "you are there"account of what it was these men saw and suffered as they struggled to save their country from being ripped apart. Hailed by one prominent collector as "the best unit history I have ever read," this account will take you back so you can fully comprehend the dedication shown by these men who fought to save their Union. A second volume, They Knew No Glory, tells the story of the 46th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, from Gettysburg through the end of the war in 1865.