Wiley is a great starting point for your studies, and you've already been given a good list of excellent works on soldier life during the Civil War. If you're interested in the Western Confederate, I'd add "Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee" by Larry J. Daniel. It's formatted much like Wiley's work, and very easy to digest.
Bob Welch
Dirty Shirts
Macomb and the Civil War, my sesquicentennial blog about life in Western Illinois during the war years.
If you have a device with a Kindle ap, you can download several soldiers memoirs from Amazon for free.
Oh really, I didn't know that. I will have to look into those for sure.
Thanks,
Matt
Leander Stillwell, Story of a Common Soldier
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26561
Free in multiple formats, including audio. I set it to playing most every night.
Mrs. Lawson
Weaver, Spinster, Strong Fast Dyes
Knitted Goods and yarns available thlawson@bellsouth.net
Moderator, When I remember. We got Rules here!
http://www.bluegraygettysburg.com/
Here's the US Civil War bookshelf at Gutenberg. They don't charge for books in any of the formats it handles (including Kindle):
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/US_Civ...28Bookshelf%29
There's a whole lot of good reading in there!
Hardtack and coffee and Si klegg can also be had for free in ebook format as well. It always strikes me as ironic to read 18th century memoirs on a 21st c electronic device. I don't know why. "From the Rapidan to Richmond" and "Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life" are good reads, too. You can get them at Gutenberg. There's also a fascinating little book called "Our Campaign Around Gettysburg" which is the story of a 90 day militia unit that marches all over southern Pa and Md on the fringes of the battle of Gettysburg. They never get involved of much of anything, but wonderful descriptions of tent camps and muddy 6 mile marches in the rain sound like the kind of things that reenactors just might actually experience in the hobby.
Rob Weaver
Pine River Boys, Co I, 7th Wisconsin
"We're... Christians, what read the Bible and foller what it says about lovin' your enemies and carin' for them what despitefully use you -- that is, after you've downed 'em good and hard."
-Si Klegg and His Pard Shorty
The Life of Johnny Reb
Matt-
Wiley's works are excellent but dated. There has been more material published since, "The Life of Johnny Reb". Some of these feature both blue and grey:
James "Bud" Robertson, "Soldiers Blue and Grey".
Gregory Coco, "The Civil War Infantryman: In Camp, on the March, and in Battle.
And some memoirs:
Randolph McKim, "A Soldier's Recollections: Leaves from the Diary of a Young Confederate."
Edward A. Moore, "The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson."
Happy reading,
-Dave Smoot
Excellent post, great responses. I'll be reading many of these this coming winter. No time during good weather.
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