author
H. N. (Henry N.) Minnigh
A Civil War veteran who later turned memory into history, he wrote a firsthand account of Company K of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves, the Gettysburg-area unit known as the "boys who fought at home." His book brings readers close to the soldiers, places, and emotions behind some of the war's most famous battles.
1 Audiobook
History of Company K. 1st (Inft,) Penn'a Reserves
by H. N. (Henry N.) Minnigh
About the author
Born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1838, Henry N. Minnigh was a teacher before the Civil War and then served with Company K of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves. Contemporary historical sources describe him rising from sergeant to lieutenant and later captain, and note that he was wounded at South Mountain in 1862.
Minnigh is remembered chiefly for History of Company K. 1st (Inft,) Penn'a Reserves, published in 1891. Written decades after the war, the book preserves the story of a company recruited from Adams County, Pennsylvania, whose men famously fought in and around their own home region during the Gettysburg campaign.
That background gives his writing a special immediacy. Rather than offering a distant summary, Minnigh wrote as someone who had lived the marches, battles, losses, and friendships himself, which is why his work still matters to readers interested in Civil War memory and local Pennsylvania history.