Book excerpt: "Great anxiety is expressed by all to reach home by the Fourth of July, which at present looks very probable. But, dear Journal, I cannot write, I feel too good." Jenk Jones would make it home on the 3rd of July, 1865. After three long years away from home with the 6th Wisconsin Artillery Battery, his reunion with family was, to him, indescribably joyful. Much had changed but the bonds remained the same. Along the way he'd seen horror and bloodshed, heartbreak, lost friends, and final victory. He was at Vicksburg and other major battles and kept "Mr. Journal" throughout, with the exception of his time in quarantine for smallpox. He recorded the ecstasy of news that Richmond had fallen, followed by Lee's surrender soon after. He writes of the sorrow he and his comrades felt at the news of Lincoln's assassination and how they all felt they'd lost a family member. Frontline diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.