McKean’s Sunday School Boys Go to War: The Story of the 77th Bemis Heights Battalion in the Great Rebellion

After personally witnessing the devastating rout of the Yankee army at Bull Run, Congressman and devout Methodist James B. McKean, hailing from Saratoga Springs, New York, the site of the turning point Revolutionary battle at Bemis Heights, issued a circular from his residence calling for the formation of a battalion which became known as the 77th New York Bemis Heights Battalion. 1,000 men from Saratoga, Essex, and Fulton counties answered McKean’s call to arms. 286 brave men gave their lives for the Union as the Bemis Heights Battalion fought alongside the Army of the Potomac from Lee’s Mills April 1862 to Appomattox 1865. The story of the New York volunteers’ experience in the Great Rebellion is told through their eyes, utilizing 300 soldier letters, diaries, and local newspaper accounts of their part in the Civil War.