Four Years a Scout and Spy / "General Bunker", One of Lieut. General Grant's Most Daring and Successful Scouts, Being a Narrative of ... the Experience of Corporal Ruggles During Four Years' Service as a Scout and Spy for the Federal Army

A first-person memoir recounts four years of service as a scout and spy for the Federal army, describing daring reconnaissance missions, narrow escapes, encounters with guerrillas and enemy camps, and the rough realities of military life. The narrator details disguises and subterfuge behind enemy lines, meetings with opposing officers and civilians, captures, paroles, and intelligence delivered to several commanding generals. Short, episodic accounts combine action, practical improvisation, and frank observations about the moral tensions and demoralizing effects of war, while preserving vivid anecdotes of scouting craft, improvised tactics, and the daily hardships of camp and field operations.