Shay looks at the crucial yet unheralded role played by support troops in World War I, in particular those in the medical branch. The unarmed men of the 103rd Field Hospital Company, 26th (Yankee) Division spent a year and a half in France performing their duty bravely under arduous conditions. The experiences of the men of the 103rd Field Hospital were undoubtedly shared by any member of a frontline field hospital. Based on nearly four years of research, including original archival material, he fills an important gap in the military history of World War I.

"A Grateful Heart" is a detailed account of the 103rd Field Hospital Company, 26th (Yankee) Division in World War I. All aspects of the company are examined. The book is more than a chronological narrative and it places the unit in the context of the larger role of the 26th Division. It features original maps and passenger lists showing the members of the unit who sailed to France in 1917 and who returned in 1919.

“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” remains one of the enduring, and most stirring, quotations of the Revolutionary War, and it was very likely uttered at the Battle of Bunker Hill by General Israel Putnam. Despite this, and Putnam’s renown as a battlefield commander and his colorful military service far and wide, Putnam has never received his due from modern historians. In The Whites of Their Eyes, Michael Shay tells the exciting life of Israel Putnam. Born near Salem, Massachusetts, in 1718, Putnam relocated in 1740 to northeastern Connecticut, where he was a slaveowner and, according to folk legend, killed Connecticut’s last wolf, in a cave known as Israel Putnam Wolf Den, which is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. During the French and Indian War, Putnam enlisted as a private and rose to the rank of colonel. He served with Robert Rogers, famous Ranger founder and leader, and a popular phrase of the time said, “Rogers always sent, but Putnam led his men to action.” In 1759, Putnam led an assault on French Fort Carillon (later Ticonderoga); in 1760, he marched against Montreal; in 1762, he survived a shipwreck and yellow fever during an expedition against Cuba; and in 1763, he was sent to defend Detroit during Pontiac’s rebellion. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Putnam—who had been radicalized by the Stamp Act—was among those immediately considered for high command. Named one of the Continental Army’s first four major generals, he helped plan and lead at the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he gave the order about “the whites of their eyes” and argued in favor of fortifying Breed’s Hill, in addition to Bunker Hill. Most of the battle would take place on Breed’s. During the battles for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island during the summer of 1776, Putnam proved himself a capable and courageous battlefield commander with a special eye for fortifications, but he sometimes faltered in tactical and strategic decision-making. In the fall of 1777, the British tricked Putnam into withdrawing from the Hudson Highlands near West Point. Relieved of command, Putnam was exonerated by a court of inquiry, but—nearly sixty and opposed by powerful political elements from New York, including Alexander Hamilton—he spent the rest of the war on non-battlefield duty in Connecticut before being paralyzed by a stroke in 1779. The Whites of Their Eyes recounts the life and times of Israel Putnam, a larger-than-life general, a gregarious tavern keeper and farmer, who was a folk hero in Connecticut and the probable source of legendary words during the Revolutionary War—and whose exploits make him one of the most interesting officers in American military history.