author
Alonzo A. White
Best known as one of the contributors to a detailed history of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, this little-known writer helped preserve firsthand memories of the Civil War. His surviving public record is sparse, which gives his work an added sense of rarity and lived experience.
1 Audiobook
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 remembered today chiefly as one of the contributors to History of the Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862–1865, a book published in 1884 with Henry S. Burrage, S. Alonzo Ranlett, William H. Hodgkins, and Edmund W. Noyes. The book grew out of efforts by former officers and comrades of the regiment to record its service and keep those wartime experiences from being lost.
The surviving information that can be confirmed about White is limited, but his connection to that regimental history suggests a close firsthand tie to the veterans and memory of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts. Rather than standing out as a widely documented literary figure, he appears as part of a group effort to preserve the voices, events, and fellowship of Civil War service.
That makes his work especially interesting for modern listeners and readers: it comes from a period when participants were still actively shaping how the war would be remembered. Even with so few biographical details available, White’s contribution helps keep a piece of that historical memory alive.