Galvanized Virginians in the Indian Wars

Have been researching the "Galvanized Yankees" for several years and can attest to the accuracy that Dr. Lowry has shown. Well done,sir.

A superb and valuable work about a topic that should be better known. Dr. Lowry's finely researched account addresses the Virginian Confederates who, following their wartime capture, volunteered to serve on the Indian Frontier in the hope of escaping the miseries of prisoner-of-war camps--only for many of them to meet suffering as bad or worse in the West. While Rebs from every state became "galvanized Yankees" during the war, Lowry's concentration on Virginians allows him to sharpen the focus and provide richer details on the men and their travails. Over the past decades, the author has contributed invaluable and unique research on largely unexplored aspects of the Civil War, dramatically expanding our knowledge of the times and the men, and I have enjoyed and learned from his many books (I read every book or pamphlet Lowry produces). Yet, any reader has favorites. Among my faves, "Galvanized Virginians in the Indian Wars" now occupies a top spot. Fascinating subject, well presented. Highly recommended.

Thomas Lowry does his usual excellent job of offering insights into a little-known episode during the end-game of the Civil War. Lowry provides a format for the research of his friend, the late Robert E. Denney. a major in the U.S. Army who held the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. Together, Lowry and Denney provide an intensely fact-based look at those Virginian soldiers who loyally refused to fight against their former comrades in the Confederate States Army but volunteered to protected settlers from Indians as an alternative to starvation in Union prison camps. Lowry is fair to everybody -- the North, the South, and the Indians. He points out that prisoner conditions were generally brutal for Yankees and Rebels alike, though the Confederates were worse..His knowledgeable context and Denney's meticulous study of the records belongs in every Civil War collection. An eminently worthwhile book.