WINNER, Certificate of Excellence in "Scholarly Publications" from the Illinois State Historical Society's 2025 Best of Illinois History Awards!
The regiment that never ran
To destroy Confederate infrastructure, avenge the horrors of slavery, and shorten the war, the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry imposed the pillaging of hard-war philosophy upon Confederate lands. This comprehensive and engaging narrative explores the Civil War ordeals and triumphs of the "Lead Mine men" who hailed from eleven counties in northern Illinois. Thomas B. Mack uncovers the history on this unit of resilient midwesterners and how they brought hard-war to the Confederacy in 1862, earlier than other historians have previously suggested.
During their service the regiment compiled an exceptional record. The 45th fought under General Ulysses S. Grant in the war's western theater, earning honors at Vicksburg and in Tennessee. The men later reenlisted as veterans and served in General William T. Sherman's Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolina campaigns. Mack considers the soldiers' community, discipline, and faith in Providence during their service in the Union Army of the Tennessee and how, despite the unit's high casualties, they upheld the lowest rate of desertion due to their fervent patriotism.
Throughout The Lead Mine Men, Mack's focus remains on the soldiers—their extensive training in Galena and Chicago and their time in camp and in combat. He follows their experiences from recruitment to their celebratory march in the 1865 Grand Review to their postwar lives in which many struggled to adjust, receive their government pensions, and protect the unit's legacy. In this book, Mack broadens our understanding of the Union soldiers who saved their republic and ended slavery within its borders.
Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Citizen to Soldier
2. The Men of the 45th
3. Down among the Secesh
4. Bloodied yet Unbroken
5. Willing Emancipators
6. On to Vicksburg
7. Sacrifice in the "Death Hole"
8. Veterans to Meridian, Home, and On to Atlanta
9. The End of a Hard War
10. Civilians Fighting with Words
Appendix A: The War's Toll and Soldiers' Misbehavior
Appendix B: Regimental Demographic Statistics
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Thomas B. Mack taught for several years at Dallas College at El Centro. His research focus is the Civil War soldier, whether Union or Confederate, and he explores soldiers' collective wartime and postwar experiences though writing modern regimental studies.
Review :
""Mack has produced a comprehensive look at one of the hard-fighting and most celebrated regiments that served under Grant and Sherman in the Western Theater. He weaves a captivating and compelling story of these rugged soldiers—largely in their own words, from enlistment through four years of grueling war. He chronicles their experiences in battle, on the march, and camp life, and includes their transition back to civilian life at war's end. In presenting these men in their patriotic fervor, faith, fears, and human frailties, he has produced an exemplary modern regimental study.""—Terrence J. Winschel, author of Triumph Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Vols. 1-2
""In addition to its chronological narrative, which reflects Mack's extensive historiographical and primary source research, The Lead Mine Men also provides helpful maps of battlefields and of troop movements. These supplemental materials, as well as the appendixes and notes, allow for better understanding of the role played by the Forty-Fifth Illinois in larger Union campaigns.""—Adam J. Criblez, Journal of Southern History
""Often lost in the scholarship of generals and battles are the lives of everyday soldiers. Thomas Mack takes what at first appears to be just another northern regiment, and with clear prose and keen insight reminds us of how very diverse Civil War units often were. Because the Illinois Forty-fifth hailed from Republican counties, its young farmers supported emancipation, reenlisted in large numbers, and demonstrated astonishing courage at bloody battles like Shiloh. Elegantly written and deeply researched.""—Douglas R. Egerton, author of Thunder At the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America
""As with any good regimental history, [The Lead Mine Men] is as much a social history as a narrative of marches and combat.""—Sean Michael Chick, Emerging Civil War
