author

Alonzo A. White

Best known today as one of the contributors to a detailed history of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, this writer helped preserve the shared memory of a Union regiment after the Civil War. His surviving record is modest, but his work remains a useful window into soldiers’ experiences and regimental remembrance.

1 Audiobook

History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 1862-1865

History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 1862-1865

by Henry S. (Henry Sweetser) Burrage, William H. (William Henry) Hodgkins, Edmund W. Noyes, S. Alonzo Ranlett, Alonzo A. White

About the author

Alonzo A. White is credited as one of the authors of History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. 1862–1865, a book first published in 1884 by a committee of the regiment. The surviving prefatory material shows that veterans had discussed creating such a history for years, and that White was among the comrades who read portions of it at reunions before a committee was formally appointed in 1876.

That makes him less a widely documented literary figure than a participant in the work of memory: someone helping turn wartime experience into a lasting record. The book’s continuing circulation through public-domain editions has kept his name attached to an important firsthand regimental history.

Reliable biographical details about his personal life are hard to confirm from the sources I found, so it seems best to keep the focus on the work itself. For listeners interested in Civil War history, White’s significance lies in helping preserve the voices, events, and perspective of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers.