Inside the Army of the Potomac

At the outbreak of war, twenty-year-old Francis Adams Donaldson enlisted in the 1st California Regiment (later known as the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers) of the famous Philadelphia Brigade of the II Corps, Army of the Potomac. He fought at Ball’s Bluff (where he was captured) and participated in the Peninsula Campaign until he was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks.
Upon his recovery, Donaldson reluctantly accepted promotion to a captaincy I the Corn Exchange Regiment (also known as the 118t...