The Prairie Boys Go to War

“[This book] serves as a guide for how regimental histories should be written. . . . Readers of Rhonda M. Kohl’s work will gain a real understanding of the men that served in the Fifth, in addition to obtaining a greater analysis of Federal soldiers overall.”—Carl Creason, H-Net Online
 
“As a military history illuminating the contributions of one regiment to a much larger war effort, Kohl’s narrative is admirably successful. . . . Kohl’s boots-on-the-ground perspective is an exceptional window into their war.”—Jason Miller, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
 
“[Readers] will find significant value in Kohl’s argument and the rich stories she tells about the soldiers’ military achievements and their encounters with African Americans, southern women, and Copperheads. . . . The author’s cultural analysis is a refreshing departure from standard regimental histories and an interesting book that is well researched and well written.”—Melissa Farah Young, Southern Historian

“ThePrairie Boys Go to War lives up to its title. . . . Kohl provides some fascinating statistics on the lives of this fractious group of individuals who were held together, at times it seemed, only by their uniform and the shared hardships of a soldier’s life.”—L. Bao Bui, Middle West Review

“[This book] tells a rich and complex story of volunteer military service and provides a detailed look at the underexamined experience of Union cavalry in the western theater. This is a well-researched and accessible book that should appeal to those interested in military matters as well as the social history of the volunteer military experience.”—Thomas Bahde, Journal of Southern History

“The Prairie Boys Go to War does in excellent fashion what so many Civil War regimental histories continue to do poorly. . . . We really have something of award worthy mention in Rhonda Kohl’s study.”—Andrew Wagonoffer, Civil War Book Review

“Looking at the common man, the common soldier, and their interactions with the union army, The Prairie Boys Go to War does well in analyzing the people of Illinois and their contributions to the Civil War. Highly recommended.”—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

“This book is well documented and well written. It should be in the library of every serious student of the Union cavalry in the Civil War.”— Samuel Blackwell, Journal of Illinois History

“With a firmness of purpose worthy of that demonstrated by the Prairie Boys, Rhonda Kohl has chronicled the service and actions of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry with an intimacy seldom woven into modern-day regimental histories. With passion and skill cultivated through ten years of diligent research, she examines the complex relationships among the officers and men—individuals who were of disparate cultural and social backgrounds, and traces the development of their cohesiveness as a unit and captures its identity. In the process she has also produced a good history of the war in the lower Mississippi River valley. So mount up for an exciting ride.”—Terrence J. Winschel, author of Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign

“The Prairie Boys Go to War presents the reader with a compelling combination of the military history of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry regiment in the Civil War with the intriguing story of its officers and men as they fought and survived under strenuous conditions in the states of Arkansas and Mississippi. Kohl skillfully uses soldiers’ diaries, memoirs, and letters to graphically tell the story of their lives and experiences as part of the ‘Bloody Fifth,’ and presents a rare look at a Union cavalry regiment in the Western Theater and the Fifth’s part in the Union struggles to contain Confederate guerrilla activity.”—James B. Swan, author of Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War

“A first-rate history of a Union cavalry regiment in the West that goes far beyond the standard narrative of miles marched and battles fought. Rhonda Kohl provides a richly detailed account of civilians in uniform beset by uncertain leadership and fractious political divisions amidst a sea of hostile Confederates. Few regimental histories have as much to say about the experiences of the men who served or say it as well.”—William L. Shea, author of Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign

“Rhonda Kohl offers a vivid sense of the daily lives of Union soldiers at war in Arkansas and Mississippi. We meet them not only as fighting men but as Republicans and Democrats, poachers and pilferers, grassroots emancipators and intramural infighters, loving husbands and disease-ridden invalids. The men of southern Illinois were known as “Egyptians,” and the plagues they encountered in the Trans-Mississippi—whether pestilence, high water, insects, extreme heat and bitter cold, or guerrilla armies—were indeed worthy of the Egypt of Moses’s day. Kohl shows us the real war, and it’s not one anybody will ever want to reenact.”—Patrick G. Williams, editor of Arkansas Historical Quarterly

“Kohl’s nuanced cultural analysis of the regiment, combined with her evenhanded treatment of the unit’s military exploits, yields a definitive narrative. The Prairie Boys Go to War sets the standard for what a good regimental history should be, and it belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in cavalry operations in the Western and Trans-Mississippi Theaters.”—Brian K. Robertson, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies