Combat Diary: Episodes from the History of the Twenty-Second Regiment, 1866-1905

(Hardback)

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Description

The story of the "Old Army" as revealed through the eyes of Colonel Jacob Kreps, this book dramatically portrays life in action with the US Infantry on the Western frontier, in the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippine Insurrection. Drawing on the first-hand accounts preserved in the diary of Kreps, who served for more than 30 years with the US Twenty-second Infantry Regiment, A.B. Feuer details the hardships endured by the soldiers in combat action. Feuer recounts the experiences of the distinguished US Twenty-second Infantry Regiment beginning in 1883. He also discusses numerous other US Army units - infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, medical, quartermaster and signal - and offers important data on the US Navy and US Marine Corps. Some of the accounts, such as that of the Pasig River battle and the Mindanao campaign, fill in missing chapters in the chronicles of war history.

Reviews

Informative and highly readable, this campaign history covers the four decades after the American Civil War when the regiment helped subjugate the Indians of the Northern Plains, chased (Jacob S.) Coxey's Army, suppressed mine and railroad strikes, fought the Spanish in Cuba and took on Emilio Aguinaldo's insurgents in the Philippines. Because of its diverse experiences, the 22d epitomizes the US Army, as a whole, during this era. The author relies heavily on excerpts from soldiers' diaries to build his narrative, especially Colonel Jacob F. Kreps' journal, which makes the book both more entertaining and more memorable than the conventional campaign history. * MILITARY REVIEW *

Author Bio

A. B. FEUER is a military historian and freelance newspaper and magazine journalist. The author of Bilibid Diary: The Secret Notebooks of Commander Thomas Hayes, he has also published articles in numerous journals, including Military History Magazine, Sea Classics, Civil War Quarterly, and World War II, and is a book reviewer for Military Review.