"Vanishing Footprints"

"Vanishing Footprints: the Twenty-Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry In the Civil War" is the most comprehensive single history of the Regiment, written by Regimental Adjutant Samuel D. Pryce.

Unpublished during Pryce's lifetime, the manuscript was edited and annotated by researcher and writer Jeffry Burden, and published in 2008. It introduces Pryce as a compelling voice about the War and about the 22nd's distinguished history.

Praise for "Vanishing Footprints"

[Pryce] was a gem of a writer...and a colorful narrator.... This skillfully-edited history makes an important contribution to Civil War literature."

-A. Wilson Greene, Exec. Dir., Pamplin Historical Park & the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier; Author, Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War

"The Twenty-second Iowa's...experience and [Pryce's] development into a first-class officer gives readers access to and insights into...the War. The wealth of photos, maps and illustrations bring their far-ranging expeditions to life."

-Edward L. Ayers, Former President, University of Richmond; Author, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863.

A Compelling Narrative

Pryce's attempt at writing about the history he lived goes beyond battle experiences. It includes tremendous insights into the creation and formation of the Regiment, as well details about the daily life of the men: the games they played, the food they ate (often unwillingly), the perilous sea journeys they were forced to endure, and more. This work, published more than a hundred years after Pryce wrote it, reveals the full experience of soldiering in the Civil War.

Among other units whose service forms part of the story told in Vanishing Footprints are the:

1st, 21st, 23rd, 24th and 28th Iowa
11th Wisconsin

131st and 159th New York
13th Connecticut

11th Indiana
77th Illinois

3rd Massachusetts Cavalry
1st Iowa Battery

16th Ohio Battery
30th Alabama

Waul's Texas Legion
and others.

"Beyond the witty commentary and humorous anecdotes lies a critically observant account of the 22nd's battles and campaigns.... but the usefulness of "Vanishing Footprints" is broader than that.... Burden's very heavy, yet ultimately respectful excising and editing is a finely managed achievement in publication.... Well done all around."

-Drew Wagenhoffer, Publisher, "Civil War Books and Authors"(http://cwba.blogspot.com

About the author

Born into the coal-mining immigrant Welsh community of Pennsylvania, Samuel D. Pryce (1841-1923) came to Iowa City in 1861 to teach and to enter the University of Iowa. In August 1862, he volunteered for duty in the 22nd Iowa. He left a non-combatants' job as regimental clerk to take up a rifle and fight. Promoted through the ranks to regimental adjutant, with the rank of Captain, he also served as a brigade Adjutant-General at the end of the War.

After leaving the service, he built a successful career in Chicago and Iowa City as a newspaper publisher, entrepeneur, and businessman. He was one of the State of Iowa's two delegates to the first national meeting of the Grand Army of the Republic, the leading Union veteran's organization.

He labored over Vanishing Footprints off-and-on for more than 20 years, until shortly before his death in Iowa City. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, within a short distance of many of his wartime comrades.

About the editor

Jeffry C. Burden is a California native now living and working in Richmond, Virginia. Besides Vanishing Footprints, his writings have appeared in such periodicals as America's Civil War, Civil War Regiments, the Washington Times, the Loyal Legion Historical Journal, and Style Weekly.

Burden has served as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Lincoln Bicentennial committee, and also of the advisory committee for the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. He is a past Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), the oldest Civil War hereditary organization, and is a frequent speaker to professional and historical groups.

22iowa.com

"Vanishing Footprints"

Praise for "Vanishing Footprints"

A Compelling Narrative

About the author

About the editor

How to obtain your copy of "Vanishing Footprints"