Suggested reading:

There are four recognized sources for specific regimental information on the history of the 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the American Civil War (1861-1865):

• Wearing the Blue in the Twenty-Fifth Mass. Volunteer Infantry by Captain J. Waldo Denny, Co. K, 25th MVM.
  Putnam & Davis, 389 Main Street, Worcester, MA, ©1879, 523 pages.
  

  Considered the most complete review of the regiment, this account includes 39 pages of soldiers' photos (195 images), as well as 17 pages of individual portraits.

• The Story of Company A, Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Mass. Vol. in the War of Rebellion by Sergt-Major Samuel H. Putnam, Co. A, 25th MVM.
  Putnam, Davis and Company, Worcester, MA, ©1886, 324 pages.
  

  There was only a limited printing of approximately 275 copies of this book for the 18th Annual Reunion of Co. A, June 3, 1886. This book is based on the daily journal entries of Putnam, with expanded text descriptions. It includes a single portrait engraving and several engraved maps. In the mid- to late-1990's, the collection of Putnam's original diaries, war letters, and manuscript pages was broken up and resold in pieces to the Civil War collecting community.

• My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, with Burnside's Coast Division; 18th Army Corps, and Army of the James by Corporal David L. Day, Co. B, 25th MVM.
  King & Billings, Printers, Gazette Office, Milford, MA, ©1884, 153 pages.

  This book was based on the private letters and pocket diaries of Corporal Day.

• The Civil War Diary of Amos E. Stearns, a Prisoner at Andersonville, edited by Leon Basile.
  Farleigh Dickinson University Press - Associated University Presses, Madison, NJ, ©1981, 127 pages.
  

  This book is based on Stearn's service and subsequent imprisonment, all of which are drawn from the contents of the original two volumes of his diaries (1863 and 1864) and a pocket testament. These books were donated in 1922 to the General George H. Ward Post 10 of the GAR in Worcester and are still there today.

The education level and writing abilities of the average soldier in the 25th Mass Infantry were very refined, compared to the average individual in the 1860's. Prior to the American Civil War, the City and County of Worcester held quite high educational standards for the public. As a result, numerous original diary and letter groupings for this regiment survive to this day in several private collections. However, except for the books noted above, no other letter holdings or books have been formally released in published form.