With High and Holy Aim: Alfred Sheldon Knight and the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers

President Abraham Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteers to serve for three years. The smallest state in the Union, Rhode Island, was eager to fill her quota for one regiment, and the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers were created. With the drive for recruits to fill up the Seventh Rhode Island, recruiters were sent throughout the state, and the towns did their utmost to furnish recruits for this new regiment. One of these men who came forward to volunteer in this critical moment was a twenty-nine-year-old farmer from the village of Kent; his name was Alfred Sheldon Knight. Following his enlistment, Alfred and the Seventh traveled to Virginia and became part of the Army of the Potomac’s Ninth Corps. Following their defeat at Fredericksburg, the Army of the Potomac settled into winter quarters at Falmouth, Virginia. For Alfred and many other soldiers in the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers, this would be their last winter. This book is the story of Alfred Sheldon Knight and the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers.