Assistant Surgeon James A. Black takes the reader on a seldom traveled journey--a fourteen hundred sixty-one day excursion--as he participates in the American Civil War. During his sojourn the Union soldier openly shares his observations, his joys, his concerns, and his frustrations, as he provides the reader with tremendous insight into the daily lives of soldiers in their camps and on their campaigns some one hundred fifty years ago. Black and a contingency of Southern Illinois men enlisted in the Union Army October 6, 1861. The 49th Illinois Infantry Regiment was mustered into service...