"Fearless Sons of War" The 200th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War Paperback – March 16, 2026

In the summer of 1864, President Abraham Lincoln called for 500,000 men to join the Union Army to replenish ranks depleted by disease and combat. The 200th Pennsylvania Volunteers was among the infantry regiments raised in response to this call to arms. Serving for a term of one year, the Keystoners received initial training at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg and then were transported to Virginia, where they saw their initial action along the Bermuda Hundred Line. The 200th suffered its worst loss in the fighting to retake Fort Stedman during the Siege of Petersburg in March 1865, losing more than 100 men in a 20-minute stand-up firefight with the Confederate attackers. The fifth color bearer of the day planted the flag on the rampart of Fort Stedman as the regiment helped recapture the earthworks from the Confederates. The 200th Pennsylvania assisted in the capture of Confederate Fort Mahone on April 2, 1865, and then helped repulse multiple counterattacks. This is the first regimental history of the 200th, and is heavily based on original diaries and diaries of the 1,000+ men who helped gain the regiment the sobriquet "Fearless Sons of War." Read more