For Our Beloved Country

War is never more horrifying, and perhaps never more compelling, than when experienced firsthand. The personal accounts collected here — diaries and memoirs written by men on the front lines — constitute a little-known history of American wars. Seven individual narratives cover seven different wars, from the Revolution to the Gulf War:

A young man joins the Continental Army in 1776 because it calls to his restless spirit. He soon learns that soldiers are treated with condescension and cruelt...