Diary of an Enlisted Man

A first-hand diary records an enlisted soldier's daily life during the Civil War, recounting recruitment, marches, camp routine, shipboard quarantine, skirmishes and larger assaults, illness, hospital care, and the logistical hardships of extended campaigns. Entries combine practical detail about food, shelter, picket duty, travel, and campcraft with quiet reflections on comradeship, fear, humor, and loss, and include vivid impressions of towns, military movements, and the strain of retreat and scarce supplies. The episodic pages, written as letters and pocket-notebook notes, provide intimate, ground-level snapshots of ordinary soldiers' experiences often omitted from formal histories.