The First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, United States Volunteers, In

James Albert FryeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5

Word count: 214K words
Chapters: 22

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The First regiment Massachusetts heavy artillery, United States volunteers, inAuthor: Frye, James A. (James Albert), 1863-1933,Language: English, Class: E660: History: America: Late nineteenth century (1865-1900), Release Date: Mar 20, 2016

Editor's review

This is a documentary volume on the First Regiment of Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, United States Volunteers. The author, James A. Frye, was himself connected with the regiment, so the narrative carries the detail and immediacy of a participant's perspective. The book is a primary source at the intersection of late nineteenth-century American military history and local history, recording the regiment's formation, garrison duty, and related wartime experiences. It is useful for studying the American volunteer system, local unit organization, and post-Civil War military structures. The style is the documentary prose common to its time, not distinguished for literary polish, but strong in concrete material and clear in names, places, and chronology. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, the original text is freely available. It suits military and local historians as supplementary source material, or military enthusiasts as an introduction to the workings of American volunteer units. Readers should approach it with specific questions and search for key figures and events rather than reading it straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of nineteenth-century American military history and the volunteer system
Readers interested in local unit histories and the history of Massachusetts
Researchers who need primary English source material for papers or specialized writing
Military enthusiasts accustomed to public-domain English documents with reasonable reading ability

Not a good fit for

General readers looking for popular war stories or literary narrative
Readers with weak English who would struggle with nineteenth-century documentary prose
Military theorists seeking systematic theoretical analysis rather than primary records

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to map the regiment's timeline and main events, then read chapters by topic.
Keep a notebook or digital file to record names, places, and unit numbers for cross-reference.
Read alongside general works on the Civil War and late nineteenth-century military history to fill in background.
Use a dictionary and annotation tools for the English text; do not get stuck on archaic spellings and military terminology.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a historical record?

It is a documentary work recording the history of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Heavy Artillery. It belongs to military and local history, not fiction. The author was connected with the regiment, and the narrative reflects a participant's perspective.

What background knowledge is needed to read this book?

It helps to know the nineteenth-century American volunteer system, the basic shape of post-Civil War military organization, and Massachusetts local history. Without that background, read the relevant chapters of a general history first.

Is the electronic edition easy to obtain and use?

Project Gutenberg publishes it as a free public-domain ebook, downloadable in common formats. The original is in English; a reading app with dictionary lookup and annotation is recommended for searching names and places.

Is it suitable for reading straight through?

Not really. Regimental histories like this are information-dense and follow events or chronology, so it is better to read selected chapters around research questions, or to establish a framework from the table of contents before close reading.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

James Albert Frye Author · American · 1863–1933

James Albert Frye (1863–1933) was an American writer who served as a volunteer in the Massachusetts militia. He is known for his humorous and vivid depictions of everyday life in peacetime volunteer units, as seen in works such as Fables of Field and Staff and From Headquarters: Odd Tales Picked up in the Volunteer Service. He also wrote a history of the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery regiment during the Spanish-American War. These works combine literary flair with the value of firsthand testimony. Public information about his life remains limited, and knowledge of him and his writings still rests mainly on these recollections and observations.