Get a rare glimpse of what life was really like for a Confederate soldier and his wife in The Legacy of a Common Civil War Soldier by Aliene Shields. A collection of thirty-four letters written by Shields' great grandfather, and placed into historical context by historian Mac Wyckoff, The Legacy of a Common Civil War Soldier unveils a portrait of a strong marital relationship buffeted by war, as well as the pain of a soldier desperate to do his duty while aching to keep his family and loved ones safe. Immediate and important, The Legacy of a Common Civil War Soldier taps into both history and...

During the American Civil War, Alexander "Sandy" McNeill, a southern merchant, served in the Secession Guards, Company F, and Second South Carolina Regiment from April 17, 1861, to May 2, 1865. Within three weeks after the war began at Fort Sumter, McNeill wrote his first epistle to his long-time friend, Almirah Haseltine "Tinie" Simmons, in a campaign to win her heart and hand in marriage. The 29-year-old McNeill proclaimed in that letter, "I have always esteemed you as a friend and now I feel stealing over me a feeling which tells me that you are now held in higher estimation than that of a...