'Harvard Regiment' was in a class all its own.(TRAVEL)(THE CIVIL WAR)

Byline: John M. Taylor, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

One genre of Civil War history that lately has fallen out of favor is the unit history. In the decades after the war, hundreds of regiments immortalized their wartime deeds by commissioning someone to write a regimental history. The result was hagiography: The unit's officers were unfailingly manly, its soldiers were brave, and willing hands seized any falling banner.

Yet some units deserve special recognition and even an objective history. The 20th Massachusetts Volunteers was one such unit, and author Richard F. Miller has told its story so skillfully that he may have breathed life into a vanishing art form.

Known as the Harvard Regiment for the overwhelming number of Harvard men among its officers, the 20th served in virtually every major battle in the Eastern theater. After a baptism of …