Book Review: The Lead Mine Men: The Enduring 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry
The Lead Mine Men: The Enduring 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. By Thomas B. Mack. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2024. Softcover, 271 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by Sean Michael Chick
Writing a good regimental history can be tricky. It helps if several elements fall into place. Sources are, of course, especially important. Some units left a large paper trail, while others simply did not. One also needs a unit with a spirited career. In those aspects, the 45th Illinois Infantry certainly fits the bill. They fought in many battles and campaigns, left behind a lot of letters, and their actions received coverage in numerous newspapers. In addition, John M. Adair, an officer in the 45th, published Historical Sketch of the Forty-Fifth Illinois Regiment only four years after the war’s end. Coming so soon, it was unlike most regiment histories published many years later when memories faded and nostalgia tended to creep in. Lastly, a book needs a good author, and Thomas B. Mack proves qualified with his first outing, The Lead Mine Men: The Enduring 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
Mack follows the 45th Illinois from its mustering in 1861 to its final act in North Carolina in 1865. As with any good regimental history, it is as much a social history as a narrative of marches and combat. Indeed, the second chapter, which discusses the unit’s composition, motivation, and political makeup was a particular favorite because it answered Mack’s most interesting question: why did this regiment have such a low desertion rate. The answer lies in its affiliation with the Republican Party. The regiment’s soldiers were Republicans by a large margin. Additionally, Illinois Congressman Elihu B. Washburne was their patron. Washburne, a Republican politician with Abraham Lincoln’s ear, also supported Ulysses S. Grant’s rise within the army. Many of the soldiers also knew Grant before the war, and the regiment served under him and then William Tecumseh Sherman.
The book’s prose is clear and the narrative balances anecdote with analysis. Most of the battle and campaign narratives are well rendered. The reader does not lose sight of the 45th Illinois’s actions in the wider war. The mistakes are few, which can too often plague an account that covers the war from start to finish. One is the map of Shiloh on April 7, 1862, which might leave readers thinking that Gen. Don Carlos Buell brought fewer troops than he actually did on Shiloh’s second day.
One interesting point that Mack examines is that the regiment embraced hard war early on. The 45th Illinois soldiers had no compunctions about punishing people they viewed as traitors. Their actions were a reflection and extension of their Republican Party perspective, a political organization that was explicitly sectional in its origins. The 45th Illinois also embraced emancipation earlier that most other Midwestern regiments. However, they viewed emancipation more in the context to strike at their enemies rather than in the spirit of true abolitionism. For instance, many were happy to have freed slaves carry out strenuous fatigue duties, which the soldiers saw as punishment for the rank and file.
The regiment’s hard edge extends to Mack’s views on antiwar northern Democrats. While 45th Illinois certainly despised these so-called “Copperheads,” Mack takes it too far, describing their actions as “treasonous work.” Too often, those who opposed the war get painted with a broad brush, and the reasons for their actions are often reduced to criminality. The complicated question of treason is beyond the purview of The Lead Mine Men. It certainly does not ruin the book, but it remains a weakness because it is a question Mack cannot answer within the text, therefore it would have been better to have left it out.
Mack takes pains to portray the 45th Illinois as a crack unit. No doubt they did well at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. Although, contrary to Mack’s account, the regiment was driven off during the late morning of April 6, 1862, near Review Field. They were also active at Vicksburg, most notably in the mine attack on June 25, 1863, and in being allowed to be the first to enter the captured city. Yet, they saw no major combat after Vicksburg. They mostly performed guard duty during the Atlanta Campaign and they missed Bentonville. One may wonder why the regiment was not utilized more in 1864 if they were as good as Mack asserts.
Mack’s The Lead Mine Men is a good first effort and stands with the better regimental histories. His use of newspapers, including many that are obscure, is particularly noteworthy. While it certainly helps that the 45th Illinois left plenty of source material, that does not diminish Mack’s fine achievement with this book. Hopefully more regimental histories like this one are in his future. There are many other regiments—such as the 4th Louisiana, a unit with a long and varied career and plenty of sources—waiting to be the focus of a well told history.
I have an ancestor or two who served in the 4th Louisiana. They seemed to have an interesting history as they served all over the place with certain companies being assigned to different locals at times.