The Bloody 85th: The Letters of Milton McJunkin, a Western Pennsylvania Soldier in the Civil War, compiled and edited by Ronn Palm, Dr. Richard Sauers, and Patrick A. Schroeder. Schroeder Publications: Lynchburg, VA, 2002 (201pp.)

This is an outstanding collection of letters by a member of Company D of the 85th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. A 24-year-old farmer from Pike Run Township near Bentleyville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, McJunkin was a prolific letter writer and astute observer of the incidents and events that encompassed his service as a soldier in the 85th Pennsylvania. The regiment was recruited in 1861 from volunteers coming from Washington, Fayette, Greene, and Somerset counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. McJunkin's letters are unique in Civil War literature in that the 85th Pennsylvania served in both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James. In McJunkin's correspondence we are given a picture of life in the Union army during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia, but also a personal story of the regiment's campaigns in North Carolina and South Carolina. His experiences included serving in the same brigade on Morris Island in South Carolina as the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a Black volunteer unit. In addition to McJunkin's letters, the book contains over sixty illustrations of officers and soldiers in the 85th. Many of these illustrations are accompanied by thumbnail sketches of the service records of these men. There is also a short history of the regiment's battleflags, including information about a court battle after the war to determine ownership of the remnants of the 85th's surviving colors. All in all, the book is a great addition to the regimental history
It should be noted that a history of the 85th Pennsylvania was originally published by regimental historian Luther S. Dickey in 1915 (History of the Eighty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 1861-1865: Comprising an Authentic Narrative of Casey's Division at the Battle of Seven Pines).