by James Walton Reid

"Chiefly significant in this book are the impressions of a South Carolinian seeing Virginia for the first time. The contrasts between the two states were so great that Reid naturally noticed them. He found more beautiful landscapes in Virginia than in South Carolina and there he saw a richer farming country. The letters and some later reminiscences indicate the thoughts of a Confederate soldier on such subjects as conscription,which he felt was tyranny,and on President Davis,whom he considered to be a dictator. Reid wrote with a sense of humor, positive convictions,and unusual candor and naivety. He volunteered at the beginning of the war and served to the end. He went immediately to Leesburg on the Potomac,took part in the First Battle of Manassas, advanced almost to the Potomac opposite Washington, and took part in the Peninsula fighting in the early summer of 1862. Since he was beyond the original conscription age of thirty-five he was mustered out in 1862 but was conscripted in 1863 when the age limit was raised. Therefore he fought in Virginia until Appomattox." --Coulter 391. "Deserving of republication,these letters by a soldier who fought with Lee are frank,sometimes witty,and almost always revealing." --CWB I,151. Dornbusch II,908. Howes R169. In Tall Cotton 155. Turnbull IV,312. Reprint of the 1891 edition. 143 Pgs. Paperback.