Needed to fight in the western theater of operations, the 38th Infantry was activated in Mobile, Alabama in 1862. Held at first to serve in the defense of their city, these volunteers were then sent to the Army of Tennessee. They were destined to fight at Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Rocky Face, Dalton, Resaca, the defenses of Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, only to end the war at Spanish Fort back at Mobile.

The 38th left Mobile in 1863 with 830 eager soldiers only to surrender in May 1865 with only 80 combat-hardened veterans. They had twice lost their regimental colors in hard fighting.

Arthur E. Green has skillfully interwoven published and unpublished sources to make the story of these volunteers come alive. Using official correspondence and reports, newspaper accounts, and the personal letters of these soldiers, Green has both written their history, and compiled a fully detailed roster of the almost 1,500 officers and men who fought with the 38th. He has used these biographies of each participant to tell both their story and that of the 38th Alabama Volunteers.