Extra Credit Questions

[Wild Bill]

Sorry to be so late, but I read the blog only off and on. As you all know by now from above answers, Galvanized Yankees were 6 regiments of infantry (never mounted) known officially as as US Volunteer, recruited from various Union prison camps for Confederate POWs. They enlisted in 1865 for service for from one to three years, depending on the regiment, and were sent West so as not to have to fight existing Confederate troops. No unit actually served over 20 months. They manned various frontier posts, guarded the Oregon, Smokey Hill, and Santa Fe trails and fought several pitched battles in the West, particularly against the Sioux in Minn., in replacing a couple of Ohio volunteer cavalry regiments who never fought Confederates either, much to their disgust. Their desertion rate was not much higher than ordinary Union volunteers. If I remember correctly James Garner's gambler role Brett Maverick in the 1960 television series was a galvanized Yankee as, of course, was Henry Morton Stanley, as mentioned above. The book, Galvanized Yankees, is by Dee Brown, originally published in 1963 by U Ills Press and reprinted in paperback by U Neb Press in 1986. The latter is probably still in print.