The Thirty-Ninth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862-1865 — Context and Discussion

A Committee of Veterans as Co-Authors

The title page lists a Regimental Committee on History, including Chairman John H. Dusseault, Secretary J. Fred. Leslie, and Treasurer Geo. F. Moses, among others. This collaborative structure is unusual for a regimental history and suggests that the book was a collective effort rather than a single author's project. The committee's presence may explain the inclusion of multiple personal narratives, such as Corporal F. A. Glines' diary and J. F. Leslie's ruse, which appear in later sections. Readers should note that the narrative voice shifts between Roe's third-person prose and the first-person accounts of individual soldiers, creating a mosaic of perspectives.

The Battle of Weldon Railroad: Three Accounts

Roe presents the engagement of August 18, 1864, through three distinct lenses. First, General Humphreys' official report describes the tactical movements of A. P. Hill's and Mahone's brigades. Second, Lieutenant Dusseault's journal offers a personal timeline: turning out at 3 a.m., marching five or six miles, and being struck by a minie ball that broke his eighth rib. Third, Roe's own summary notes that the regiment's loss was about three thousand men. This tripartite treatment allows the reader to compare the general's strategic language with the soldier's sensory details—the dense woods, the enemy within forty feet, the order to fall back.

Diaries as Documentary Evidence

The book includes several diaries and recollections, such as those of Corporal F. A. Glines, Corporal John E. Horton, and Corporal Edward H. Lewis. These are not merely appended as afterthoughts but are integrated into the narrative structure. For instance, the diary of Lieutenant Dusseault is quoted directly in the Weldon Railroad chapter, providing a moment-by-moment account that complements the official record. Readers should pay attention to the dates and locations in these diaries, as they offer a ground-level view of the campaign's progression. The diaries also reveal the soldiers' preoccupations: the weather, rations, and the constant threat of enemy fire.

The Regiment's Organizational Journey

The table of contents traces the regiment's movements from Lynnfield and Boxford through Washington, across the Potomac, and into Virginia. Early chapters cover picket duty, Stuart's Raid, and the First Anniversary, while later sections detail the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna River, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. The final chapters address the end of the war in 1865 and include a substantial section on Rebel prisons. This structure allows the reader to follow the regiment's physical and emotional arc, from the initial enthusiasm of recruitment to the grim realities of prolonged combat and captivity.

Readers approaching this history for the first time will benefit from noting the interplay between official reports and personal diaries. The committee's inclusion of multiple viewpoints means that no single account is authoritative; instead, the truth of the regiment's experience emerges from the juxtaposition of voices. Pay attention to the dates and locations in the diaries, as they often correct or complicate the broader narrative. This is a history built from the ground up, by the men who lived it.

Reading Roe’s careful account of the Thirty-Ninth Massachusetts, I kept thinking how often the plainest records hold the heaviest weight. That same quiet dignity lingers in The Campaigns of the 124th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with Roster and Roll of Honor — Story, Setting & Ideas, where the roster reads less like names and more like a low, lingering bell.