Thus seeking to fulfill duty rather than find glory, young W. H. Andrews enlisted in the 1st Georgia Regulars in February 1861. Footprints of a Regiment chronicles his four years in the War Between the States from the Siege of Yorktown to the war’s last battle at Bentonville, North Carolina. Based on his war journals and written in the 1890s, Andrews’ moving memoir offers unusual access to the war-the perspective of a foot soldier reflecting some thirty years later.

Andrews gives vivid and dramatic descriptions of his company’s twenty-plus battles, including their violence and tragedy. “What a crash [the enemy shells] made coming through the trees....I could not help watching the boys to see if anybody else was as bad scared as I was.” The specter of death was behind every shadow, but the living marched on. “Poor boys, with a heave and a swing they were pitched to their last resting place unknown, unwept, and unsung.”

No less fascinating are the descriptions of his everyday experiences through the southern battleground states-long, hard matches, foraging as a result of scant rations and pay, soldiers deserting to relieve starving families, silly antics to ease restlessness or exhaustion.

From his unique perspective, and with fine, poignant prose, Andrews remembers the war with both honor and anguish. “It was certainly a hot place, but I had been there long enough to get used to it, and if there is anything in this world I like better than another, it is to see a line of battle go into action.”

In careful biographical supplements, Civil War historian Richard McMurry pieces together the scant data on how Andrews came to serve in a Georgia regiment, what led him to pen his memoir, and where he lived after the war. McMurry also identifies many of the soldiers and officers mentioned in the narrative. For readers of many interests-including Civil War aficionados and descendants hoping to track their ancestors’ wartime service-Andrews’ memoir is a beautiful, informative narrative.

Theodore P. Savas, coeditor of Civil War Regiments, agrees: “The narrative contains some of the finest and freshest battle anecdotes available, including a vivid firsthand description of Gen. Robert E. Lee during the bitter fighting at Antietam. This delightful memoir is both entertaining and enlightening, articulate and discerning.”