They provided good service guarding wagon trains and fighting indians from late March until the end of November 1865 when they were mustered out.
A good read on this unit and other similar units as well as rationale why they chose Federal service rather than put up with further incarceration and poor and inadequate rations, is found in Dee Brown's "The Galvanized Yankees," University of Nebraska Press, 1963.
From the U. S. Army History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa Unit Bibliographies
Title: United States Volunteers
U.S. Army Military History Institute
Historical Services Division
30 Jan 06
United States Volunteers
("Galvanized Yankees")
Brown, Dee A. The Galvanized Yankees. Urbana, IL: U IL, 1963. 243 p. E83.863B7.
See especially his bibliography.
_____. "Galvanized Yankees." CW Times Illus (Feb 1966): pp. 12-21 (10 photocopied pages). Per.
Butts, Michele T. "Galvanized Yankees on the Upper Missouri: A History of the First United States Volunteer Infantry Regiment." Thesis, U NM, 1992. 514 p. E492.45.1stVol.B87.
_____. "Trading Gray for Blue: Ex-Confederates Hold the Upper Missouri for the Union." Prologue (Winter 2005): pp. 14-21 (8 photocopied pages). Per.
Current, Richard N. "Galvanized Yankees." In Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers From the Confederacy. Boston: Northeastern U, 1992. pp. 111-32 (12 photocopied pages). E491C94.
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Vol. 2. Dayton, OH: Morningside, 1979. Ref.See p. 1717 (1 photocopied page) concise histories of the lst-6th Infantry Regiments, 1st p. 296 (l photocopied page) for a brief description of the "Galvanized Yankees."
Musgrove, Richard W. Autobiography. Privately published, l921. 230 p. E60lM99.
Served with 1st Regiment.
The following pertinent personal papers are in the Institute's Manuscript Archive:
Blackson, George - WmGladstoneColl
Couchman, Donald H. - CouchmanColl
Fancher, James A.P. (3rd Regt) - CWMiscColl
Rowe, Louis (1st Regt) - CWMiscColl
His Federal service record file should be found in Microform M1017, Compiled Service Records of Former Confederate Soldiers Who Served in the 1st Through 6th U. S. Volunteer Infantry Regiments Roll 30