Though he led men through plenty of action in the American Civil War, the battles are not what Brevet-Brigadier General Willoughby Babcock wrote home to his wife about. His letters and diaries left us one of the best overall descriptions of camp life during the struggle for the Union.

He discusses camp politics, the fleas, the problems with maintaining discipline:

"Tonight not 200 [men] are in camp. Capt. Catlin, Capt. Hulburt, Lt. Cooper and one or two other officers are under arrest. A hundred men are drunk, a hundred more are at houses of ill-fame, and the balance are everywhere."

He kept meticulous records of the costs of uniforms and equipment (officers had to buy their own), provisions from sutlers, what the men and officers did for recreation (other than visiting 'houses of ill-fame'), and some of the dangers they faced daily.

Find out what it was like to be on picket duty at night, how fortifications were built, and how they transported large armies. Lieutenant Colonel Willoughby Babcock was mortally wounded at the Battle of Opequon on September 19, 1864.

This book is an extremely valuable addition to the body of Civil War literature for the very reason that in order to shield his wife from worry, he made most of his letters about the type of mundane details that are fascinating but absent from many memoirs. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.

For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones.

Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.