While My Country Is in Danger: The Life and Letters of Lieutenant Colonel Richard S. Thompson Twelfth New Jersey Volunteers. This item is unavailable.While My Country Is in Danger: The Life and Letters of Lieutenant Colonel Richard S. Thompson Twelfth New Jersey Volunteers

First printing. Fine in ifne dust jacket. Hardcover. 229 pp. with bibliography, index. Illustrated with photographs. Richard Swain Thompson was born in Cape May Court House, New Jersey and was just 23 years old when Lincoln issued his first call for troops in nthe Civil War. Thompson first joined a Home Guard unit in Philadelphia where he had begun a law career but by August, 1862 had returned home to enlist as Captian of Company K, 12 New Jersey Vols to participate in its recruitment. He later rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. His contemporary diary entries and letters to friends and family, as well as notes written in his later years, provide a picture of the experiences of a mid-level officer at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, in the Petersburh campaign, and Reams' Station (where he was seriously wounded).