More than fifty years after the organization of the Thirty-ninth Regiment and its departure for the seat of war, its printed history makes its appearance. The long delay has not arisen from any lack of desire for its preparation, nor on account of want of material. For many long years it was supposed that the recital was in preparation, but the comrade to whom the task was intrusted went away into the other world before its completion, and survivors of the Regiment began to wonder if their story of long marches, fierce fighting and unspeakable suffering in Rebel prisons ever would be told. At the annual reunion of the Veteran Association in 1911 it was voted to proceed with the long cherished proposition, and a committee was appointed to carry out the proposal; after two years and a half the survivors of that committee present this volume to the patient waiters among the living veterans and to the families and descendants of those who have made the final crossing.

Readers of the book should bear in mind that it is very far from being a history of the war, nor does it discuss campaigns and battles in their entirety; on the contrary every effort has been made to describe the part borne by the Regiment in said campaigns and engagements. Long shelves in the large libraries of the country are already laden with great volumes descriptive of the War of the Rebellion as a whole and of detached portions thereof; as many more have been written of eminent individual experience, like the recollections of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan on the Union side and of Beauregard, Johnston and Longstreet among the Confederates, but the story of the great struggle will not be fully told until that of every regiment finds its way into print. Regimental histories occupy a golden mean between the comprehensiveness of the general history and the minuteness of individual records.

Massachusetts veterans can not be too grateful that the Commonwealth in its wisdom, a number of years ago, offered to assist in the preparation and publication of regimental histories by the purchase of five hundred copies of the same, under certain conditions of size and contents. In this manner and otherwise, more than one-half of the organizations of the Bay State which participated in the effort to maintain the Union have been written and it is hoped that the generosity of the Commonwealth and the courage of the veterans will continue until every regiment, battery and battalion will have been adequately described. While those who made the history are rapidly passing over the divide 'twixt life and death, and personal recollections are more difficult to obtain, yet their stories are not written so much, at this late date, from word of mouth as from letters, diaries and jottings made at the time and now are carefully preserved either by the writers or those to whom they have passed as precious legacies.

A history like this of the Thirty-ninth represents many letters written to veterans or to their surviving families in the effort to secure for transcription whatever note the soldier may have made in camp, field or prison-pen, bearing on the period in which the writer wore the blue. In several cases, through fear of losing the precious documents, friends of deceased soldiers have declined to lend them for use; of course it is too late to secure them for utility in this instance but, for the sake of other efforts in this direction, let us hope that those people possessing any written observations on the trying times of 1861-'65 will freely proffer their employment by those interested in their permanent preservation. It is a lamentable fact that many papers prepared under the fire of the enemy or, at least, in that indefinite region known as the "Front," have disappeared through the extra diligence of careful housekeepers and the general dislike of "old things lying 'round."

While many months in the earlier portions of the service of the Thirty-ninth were devoted to drill and thorough preparation, including a prolonged stay in the city of Washington, yet the call to the field, soon after Gettysburg, was so obeyed that before the seal of Appomattox was set upon the fate of the Confederacy, Colonel Davis' men had proved beyond any chance for cavil that they were of the same stuff that had rallied so readily at Concord and Lexington; had bled in the streets of Baltimore and, on the decks of the Constitution and the Monitor, had shown the world what was meant by resistance to tyranny. Its first officer was killed at the front; the third mortally wounded, and the second so severely injured that his life was long despaired of and seemingly was saved as by a miracle. At the Weldon R. R., on the 19th of August, 1864, so completely was the Regiment swept off the field, through no fault of its own, its organization was nearly lost, and the deaths in the prisons of the South of these victims exceeded those of all other Massachusetts Infantry Regiments with a single exception.

In seeking printed data for condensation in this narrative the committee was rewarded in finding in the Fourth Volume of the Printed Papers of the Massachusetts Military Historical Society a very clear and interesting description of the "Operations of the Army of the Potomac, May 7-11, 1864" by Brevet Brigadier-General Charles Lawrence Peirson, the universally loved and respected Colonel of the Thirty-ninth, and from his observations liberal abstracts have been made for the edification of readers of this history. In the same volume also are found papers by Captain Charles H. Porter, Companies D and A of the Regiment, and always so active in the councils of the Veteran Association, who discusses the "Opening of the Campaign of 1864" and the "Battle of Cold Harbor," valuable in considering the parts taken in those incidents by the Regiment in which he served. Access also has been had to typewritten papers on the part borne by the Fifth Corps in the last three days of March, '65, and "The Fifth Corps at Five Forks" also prepared by Captain Porter and which have proved of great utility in this compilation.

Naturally, the papers of General Peirson and Captain Porter are of a general character, somewhat removed from the individual, but quite the reverse is found in the well preserved accounts of company experience as presented in contributions to the Woburn Journal by Albert P. Barrett of Co. K, to the Medford Mercury by John S. Beck of "C" and in the monograph of Lieut. John H. Dusseault of Company E. Unfortunately, the spirited story, as told by the Woburn scribe, goes no further than the Mine Run campaign, leaving the reader longing for a continuation of his glowing recital; Diarist Beck returns his comrades, those who survived, to their home-town, while the Somerville chronicler, whose observations are clear and instructive up to the date of his wound and consequent invalidism is compelled to end his direct comments on that direful August day of '64 at the Weldon R. R. However, whether general or specific, extended or condensed, the readers of the history owe much to the careful annalist of those trying days of the early sixties.

Thanks are due the survivors who by their answers to circular letters rendered possible the exceedingly full roster, wherein are found the individual records whence must be drawn in coming years the facts for those seeking admission to patriotic organizations on the strength of ancestral service in preserving the Union. It is a source of regret that data could not be obtained for extending the descriptive list of every name in the Regiment. Especially are thanks due to General Peirson for his unflagging interest in the work of preparation and for his generosity in helping on the undertaking. The committee representing the Veteran Association is entitled to the thanks of all concerned for its careful attention to details, for the time given to rehearsals of the story as it progressed and for its unfailing willingness and promptness in assisting in every possible manner. At the same time it is impossible to suppress the regrets that inevitably rise over the seemingly untimely deaths of comrades Brown and Whittaker. Possibly no one had been more prominent than the first named in laying out the work and securing data for the story, but he was called away in the very midst of the preparation; Comrade Whittaker entered into the scheme with all the zeal and ardor so characteristic of his intense nature, and died, as it were, pen in hand, inditing the story of the terrible opening of The Battle Summer as he remembered it.

Thanks also should be rendered to the Brothers Mentzer and Mitchell of "A" for anecdotes and incidents; to Geo. V. Shedd and Edward H. Lewis of "B" for the use of their diaries; to the family of the late John S. Beck of "C" for the loan of his well preserved diary, and to M. F. Roberts for other Company C facts; to the widow of Captain C. H. Porter, "D" and "A," for the use of his scrapbook, manuscripts and other data; to Lieut. J. H. Dusseault, "E," for his accurate and interesting account of the Somerville Company; to the family of John E. Horton for his painstaking diary; and to Ex-mayor Edward Glines, Somerville, for the use of the carefully kept diary of his brother Frederick A.; to Lieut. Jas. E. Seaver, secretary of the Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, for valuable data concerning Company F, its officers and men; to Lieut. Chas. H. Chapman and Sergt. J. H. Prouty, "G," for facts concerning that company; to George Monk, "H," for his brother Robert's diary; to Lieut. H. F. Felch, W. H. Garfield and the Hon. H. C. Mulligan, son of Lieut. Simon Mulligan, for facts pertaining to Company I; and to the family of A. P. Barrett, "K," for the scrapbook having his letters to the Woburn Journal; George E. Fowle, Abijah Thompson and Capt. E. F. Wyer (Fifth M. V. M.) for Company K data and incidents; to all those whose journals and recollections rendered possible the unexcelled accounts of prison experiences. Finally, all concerned unite in thanks to the ever efficient and courteous corps of officers and assistants in the office of the adjutant-general at the State House for favors there extended.

Worcester, December, 1913 ALFRED S. ROE.