{"product_id":"2940149527632","title":"Letters During Service in the Civil War","description":"Front-line letters and diaries of the American Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I am sorry that I cannot accept your invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle Sam has a prior claim upon my time and will insist on my remaining here and dining with HIS happy family.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCaptain Edward Williams served detached as an aide-de-camp to Colonel John A. McDowell commanding First Brigade, Jan. 1, 1863 to Feb. 28, 1863, and on staffs of Generals J. W. Denver and W. Sooy Smith afterwards. Then he served as commissary under General Turchin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe writes of meeting a woman at a train depot whom he assumed was white, and he wondered why she was in a crowd of contraband African-Americans. She smiled and told him that she was, despite her appearance, a slave. Her father was white but her mother had \"a small amount of negro blood\" making her children slaves as well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough not an infantry or artillery commander, Williams nevertheless heard the whistle of minnie-balls at some of the most significant battles of the Civil War. This collection of letters home were printed privately for his son in 1903.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the first time, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBe sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.","brand":"Big Byte Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47101360308464,"sku":"2940149527632","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940149527632_p0.jpg?v=1763718327","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940149527632","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}