"Yesterday, at 2am, we left the camp to attack the enemy that was waiting for us 2 miles away. I didn't know what kind of luck I was going to have. I only knew that my battalion was the first to attack. God wanted me to be able to give you another…

"Lots of boys enlisted under the wrong name. So did I. The country needed men, and I wanted excitement. I worked on an Illinois farm as a man the year before the war. I wasn't discovered and thought I'd try my luck in the service."~Albert Cashier,…

"Lying in woods all day. Nothing new. Turned out at Midnight an attack being made. Moved out but were not called upon. Weather fine and warm."~Diary entry, Wednesday, June 22, 1864 Sergeant Major Christian A. Fleetwood of the U.S. Colored Infantry…