To Save the Union: Volunteers in the Civil War from Centerville, Hume and Granger Townships, Allegany County, New York by Robert N. Colombo; 346 pp; paper; 8.5x11; index; Published: 2007; ISBN: 0-788443-94-1; Item # HBC4394

This book is about the men from the rural townships of Centerville, Hume and Granger (Allegany County, New York) who volunteered or were drafted to fight in The War Between the States. History, good or bad, is made by the average person who seeks neither fame nor fortune. This is their story—it is not about the war. It provides insight into the world of these men just prior to the war, with an analysis of the 1860 Federal Census, and looks again at that world at the end of the war with an analysis of the 1865 New York State Census. Mostly, this book offers readers a look at the lives of the men. Who were their parents, their brothers and sisters? Where were they born and what were they doing in life prior to the war? What happened to them during the war? What battles did they fight? Were they injured, wounded, captured or killed? If they were lucky enough to survive the war, what did they do with the rest of their lives? Who did they marry and who were their children? What jobs did they hold and where did they live? For those who survived the war and for those who didn’t, where and how did they die? Many never-before-published photos of Civil War soldiers, a census analysis describing the world inhabited by these men and a full name index add to the value of this work.