The first-ever formal history of this Civil War regiment that hailed primarily from New York's Oneida County.

Recruited from the gentle farmlands of central New York, the Twenty-Sixth New York Infantry was one of the initial two-year volunteer regiments accepted from the Empire State. Though those young men marched proudly off to war anticipating glory and quick victory, their first year amounted to little more than dreary garrison duty in and around Washington, D.C. Their second year more than made up for the previous lack of combat, as Death soon wrapped its cold arms around the "Second Oneida" with a vengeance experienced by very few other blue-clad regiments. Despite such regimental fortitude, official accolades never seemed to materialize. Meticulously researched, Glory Was Not Their Companion draws upon numerous unpublished letters and diaries from the collections of individuals, private libraries and public institutions, as well as contemporary newspapers and obscure government documents. In addition to the narrative, twenty-two portraits of the regiment's veterans, twenty-seven photos and drawings, maps, and appendices are all woven together by the author to tell the story of this long-neglected, hard luck Union regiment.

This work covers the regiment's entire two-year term of enlistment from May 1861 to May 1863. Appendices cover the order of command within campaigns and post assignments. Also included is a regimental roster listing the 1,182 men who served in the Twenty-Sixth.