Book Description

Excerpt from A Little Fifer's War Diary: With 17 Maps, 60 Portraits, and 246 Other Illustrations My dear Bardeen: You have done a real service, first, in safeguarding your diary through all these years, and, second, in making it the basis for these intensely interesting personal recollections of the Civil War. The literature of that war is, as you well know, already almost limitless in extent, but, I question whether in the years to come any of the documents that throw light upon it will have more real value than the frankly stated personal reminiscences and recollections of men who, like yourself, fought in the ranks and saw the ebb and flow of battle from the standpoint of the private soldier. There is a closeness of contact with events which the private soldier enjoys that in no small degree compensates for his inability to see a scheme of campaigning or a plan of battle as a whole. It has been peculiarly interesting to me to read your reminiscences, because I have often wondered what must have been the feelings and the reflections of an American youth who found himself in the early sixties old enough to appreciate in some degree the great crisis which faced the nation, and yet not old enough to participate in the events which accompanied it with full adult power. You have answered this question admirably and fully. Your reflections upon the relative capacity of various commanding officers, your anecdotes, and your sketches of such battles as those at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg have given me keen pleasure, and they will certainly give a pleasure just as keen to the many who will read these recollections in book form. You have not changed so very much since you enlisted in Company D, First Massachusetts Infantry. Then, as now, you permitted very little to escape your vigilant notice; then, as now, you were furnished with quick wit and keen humor with which to illumine events as they happened, and to soften asperities as they came to your notice; then, as now, you hated shams and pretence, and had a pretty sharp lance in hand with which to make your justifiable hatred effective; then, as now, you were blessed with the power of description that your friends recognize to be most unusual, the results of which they never fail to enjoy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.