Billy Yank and Johnny Reb

"In less than twenty minutes I found myself alone struggling upon the ramparts, while all around me lay the dead and wounded piled one upon another. As I could not go into the fort alone, I knelt down, still holding the flag in my hands. the musket balls and grape shot were flying all around me, and as they struck, the sand would fly in my face." --Sergeant William H. Carney, 54th Massachusetts, Battle of Fort Wagner for many of the Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs fighting to defend their...
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"In less than twenty minutes I found myself alone struggling upon the ramparts, while all around me lay the dead and wounded piled one upon another. As I could not go into the fort alone, I knelt down, still holding the flag in my hands. the musket balls and grape shot were flying all around me, and as they struck, the sand would fly in my face." --Sergeant William H. Carney, 54th Massachusetts, Battle of Fort Wagner for many of the Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs fighting to defend their beliefs in the Civil War, the events were the most grueling of their lives. These soldiers shared their experiences with those at home through diaries and letters and in the memoirs they wrote after the war ended. Author Susan Provost Beller uses these first-person accounts to bring the soldiers' stories back to life. the excitement of battle, the drudgery of drills and marching, the complaints about food, the stories of death and disease, and the hardships of the prisoners of war are all included. These accounts reveal the most bitter fighting among Americans in the words of the soldiers who took part in it.