"Not known to the historic pen, or platform orator," wrote a soldier in the 117th New York Volunteer Infantry, "but the private led in the horror of the fight."

Drawing on firsthand accounts, this history of the regiment narrates the monotony and privation of camp life, the exhaustion of long marches and the terror of combat from the perspective of the regular soldier. The operations of the 117th are fully detailed, including actions in the 1863 Suffolk Campaign, the siege of Charleston, the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond, and the conquest of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.