From Your Affectionate Son: The Civil War Letters of Frederic Henry Kellogg

Peach blossoms scented the sunny spring morning as Fred Kellogg wrote to his mother on the day before the battle of Shiloh.

"there is now 75 to 100,000 men here and they still keep coming. I think we shall have a chance to fight either here or in Corinth and soon"

Fred, injured in the battle, went home to recuperate. Later he joined the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. From Nashville and Kennesaw Mountain; Jonesborough, Atlanta and Macon came stirring tales of his furious rides with Garrard, Wilson and Kilpatrick.

"We had a hard time sence we started out with Kilpatrick...they had us completely surrounded and sent in a flag of truce for us to surrender. Kill sent word back to General Ross to go to Hell. He was a going out of there"

These 70 letters, with proven credibility, offer a unique study of the difference between what is accepted as history and what really went down as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive young man who welcomed change and challenge and who shared all his trials and triumphs with the mother he adored.