Recommended Reading

nfortunately, none of the surviving veterans of the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry ever compiled a regimental history for posterity. There are nonetheless a number of written sources that chronicle the Civil War service of the unit, some of its individual soldiers, the Irish Brigade, and other ethnic units of the Union army. Some of these books are listed here. Several are available from Amazon.com and our Amazon-powered 28th Massachusetts Shop.

• Adjutant General of Massachusetts. Record of the Massachusetts Volunteers,1861-1865. Wright and Potter: Boston, 1868.
  
  
• Adjutant General of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Great Civil War. 4 volumes. Norwood Press: Norwood, Massachusetts, 1931.
  
  
• Athearn, Robert G. Thomas Francis Meagher: An Irish Revolutionary in America. University of Colorado Press: Boulder, Colorado, 1949.
  
  
• Barnard, Sandy. Campaigning With the Irish Brigade: Pvt. John Ryan, 28th Massachusetts. AST Press: Terre Haute, Indiana, 2001.  Also available direct from the publisher.
  
  
• Barnard, Sandy. Custer's First Sergeant: John Ryan. AST Press: Terre Haute, Indiana, 1994.
  
  
• Bowen, James L. Massachusetts in the War, 1861-1865. Clark W. Bryan: Springfield, Massachusetts, 1889.
  
  
• Burton, William. Melting Pot Soldiers: Ethnic Regiments of the Union Army.
  
  
• Conyngham, D.P. The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns. McSorely: New York, 1867. Now reprinted in a fascimile edition by Fordham University Press with an introduction by L.F. Kohl.
  
  
• Corby, William. Memoirs of Chaplain Life: Three Years with the Irish Brigade in the Army of the Potomac. Notre Dame,1893. Now available in a facsimile edition reprint with an introduction by L.F. Kohl published by Fordham University Press.
  
  
• Jones, Paul. The Irish Brigade. Luce: Washington, D.C., 1969.
  
  
• Kohl, Lawrence F. ed. Irish Green and Union Blue: The Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh, Color Sergeant, 28th Massachusetts Volunteers. Fordham University Press: New York, 1986.
  
  
• Spink, Barry. From Cavan to Cold Harbor: The Life of Colonel Richard Byrnes. Irish Brigade Association: Throggs Neck, New York, 1994.
  
  
• Tucker, Phillip T. ed. The History of the Irish Brigade: A Collection of Historical Essays. Sergeant Kirkland's Museum and Historical Society: Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1995.

A portion of the proceeds from any book, video or CD purchase you make from our Amazon-powered 28th Massachusetts Shop or by following our links to Amazon.com will support the living history programs and historic preservation efforts of the recreated 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.