Welcome to the 39th Illinois Home Page

Fred C. Decker
Glendale, CA
FDecker629@aol.com

The following is a review from the Civil War News June 1996 by William Shea, Historian at the University of Arkansas at Monticello:

Yates Phalanx: The History of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry, in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. Edited by Frederick C. Decker. Illustrated, maps, index, appendices, 419 pp, Heritage Books, Bowie, MD.

"Regimental surgeon Charles M. Clark was the driving force behind the publication of Yates Phalanx in 1889. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs provided by former comrades, the good doctor described the experiences of the 39th Illinois in a better-than-average regimental history.
His account is interesting, apparently reliable, and mercifully devoid of much of the melodrama and sentimentality that encumber so many post war publications.
Now, Frederick C. Decker, a descendant of a member of the regiment, has prepared an expanded version of that venerable volume. The new edition contains Clark's original narrative completly reset in an attractive format along with an improved regimental roster, sketches of each company, and several items relating to Decker's ancestor.
The 39th Illinois, which was named for Gov. Richard Yates, served all over the Eastern Theater from Maryland to South Carolina, but never had more than a passing acquaintence with the Army of the Potomac.
The peripatetic Illionisans marched up and down the Shenandoah Valley with Banks, participated in the siege of Charleston, landed at Bermuda Hundred under Butler, and fought on both sides of the James during the siege of Richmond and Petersburg. Along the way they suffered heavy losses at Winchester, Drewry's Bluff and Deep Bottom. Civil Warriors interested in any of these affairs should examine this book."

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of my book, please contact me by E-Mail.

Let me know what you think about my page. Send mail by clicking here.

TheHistoryNet: Article Index
American Civil War Maps and Exhibits
Blue & Gray
The Civil War Center