“From the forest depths there burst forth the terrible uproar of battle. The deep tones of the cannon marked time to the incessant roll of musketry, which, like the explosion of long strings of fire-crackers, ran along the whole line where the contestants retreated or advanced to the attack…”

Recollections of a Private is a vibrant and exhilarating account of what life was like as an ordinary Union soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Unusually for an account of the Civil War of the mid-1800s, Warren Lee Goss describes with detail life behind-the-scenes in the soldiers’ camps, lending as much detail to these prosaic but intimate scenes as to the violent battle scenes. Grave accounts of skirmishes, campaigns, human losses, injuries are juxtaposed with humorous interjections about the diets of mules – did you know “they eat anything, including canal boats and rubber blankets”? – or snippets of the playful conversations between the young men. These lend this Civil War account an unparalleled sense of honesty. Bursting with vivid, colourful details about life interacting with civilians, both friend and foe, the perils of marching through mud, and the heart-stopping first experiences on the battle-field, Goss’s writing is sure to transport you back in time with his eye-opening, frank-yet-funny recollections.

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