author
Louis Richards
1842–1924
A Pennsylvania lawyer and historian, he wrote with a sharp eye for local detail, turning militia service, legal practice, and Berks County history into vivid reading. His work preserves small but memorable corners of 19th-century Pennsylvania life.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1842, he became a member of the Berks County bar in Pennsylvania and built a reputation as a law writer as well as a careful student of local history. His books and articles ranged from practical legal works, including The Pennsylvania Form Book, to historical and genealogical studies connected to Berks County.
He is especially remembered by modern readers for Eleven Days in the Militia during the War of the Rebellion, a firsthand account of the 1862 emergency campaign in Pennsylvania. He also wrote on regional subjects such as the Susanna Cox case and early cemetery inscriptions, showing a lasting interest in how everyday lives become part of history.
Richards died in 1924. Although he is not widely known today, his writing remains valuable for readers interested in Civil War memory, Pennsylvania legal history, and the texture of local historical research.