This memoir by George Benjamin West, compiled and edited by Parke Rouse, Jr., offers us a young man's personal story centered around the wartime occupation by United States Army troops on the Virginia Peninsula. The narrative's events are the true experiences of West, about 22 years old when the conflict began in April 1861. His middle-aged recounting of youthful exploits and the war-related travails of his family offer the reader details of Virginia domestic life during the war - Southern at war's outbreak, but soon occupied by Union troops for the duration. For most Peninsula residents, the...