The Civil War diaries of David Hunter Strother, known better to his contemporaries as "Porte Crayon," chronicle his three years of service in the Union army with the same cogency and eye for detail that made him one of the most popular writers and illustrators in America in his time. A Virginian strongly opposed to secession, Strother joined the Federal army as a civilian topographer in July of 1861 and was soon commissioned, rising eventually to the rank of brigadier general. He served under a succession of commanders, including Generals Patterson, Banks, Pope, and McClellan, winning their...

Porte Crayon delighted in drawing innyard loafers, black cooks, tidelands fishermen, and vistas of southern resorts and squatters' cabins. Some of these are published here for the first time from his sketchbooks. Around his realistic sketches he wrote his complementary travelogues on such subjects as his adventures in the Blackwater Falls region of what is now West Virginia, in the Dismal Swamp, and in the gold regions of North Carolina.

Originally published in 1959.

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