author
Daniel Oakey
A Civil War veteran and regimental officer, he wrote from firsthand experience about the Second Massachusetts Infantry and helped preserve the memory of its service. His surviving work offers a direct, personal window into Union Army life and battle.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Daniel Oakey is known as the author of History of the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry: Beverly Ford, a work published in Boston in 1884. Library and public-domain records identify him as a captain in the Second Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry, which gives his writing unusual immediacy and authority.
His best-known work began as a paper read at an officers' reunion in Boston on May 12, 1884, then appeared in print the same year. Rather than writing as a distant historian, Oakey wrote as someone who had served in the regiment himself, focusing on the Civil War action at Beverly Ford.
Reliable biographical details beyond his military rank and authorship are limited in the sources available here. Even so, his work remains valuable for readers interested in Civil War history, because it preserves the voice of a participant reflecting on the experience of the Union army.