About this item
Through diaries and letter written on the battlefield, in camps, and on the deathbeds of soldiers from north and south, Wiley Sword, writes about more than the Civil War. He writes of the complex working of a soldier's mind coming to grips with life and death in a time when his country was at war with itself. On Aug. 3, 1864, Illinois Lieutenant Frank Curtiss was ordered by his commander to take the 127th Illinois Infantry into a charge of the fortified Rebel lines. He knew certain death was in store for him and his men. He also knew little tactical superiority would be gained for lives lost and refused to do it. Confederate Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne, one of the South's greatest military tacticians, left diaries showing he was striving to refine his methods to save lives while winning battles.
About the Author
Wiley Sword is the author of eight books including "Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863" and "Embrace an Angry Wind" for which he received the 1992 Fletcher Pratt Award. His book "President Washington's Indian War" was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize and Western Heritage Prize. He was educated at the University of Michigan.
