A remarkable narrative that covers the major campaigns of the western front.

Of all those who served with Robert E. Lee in the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia, no one was as close to him as Walter Taylor. Twenty-two years old when hostilities broke out, Taylor served at Lee's side virtually without interruption during the entire Civil War. The only officer who could lay claim to such a distinction, Taylor served first as aide-de-camp and subsequently as assistant adjutant general of the Army of Northern Virginia. Taylor traveled with Lee, ate at his mess, shielded him from a flood of administrative concerns, and on occasion delivered his battlefield...