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pp. 277, ” The soldier of this valuable book is Bobrick’s great-grandfather, Benjamin (“Webb”) Baker, of the 25th Illinois. Growing up in rural Charleston, Illinois, Webb enlisted in 1861 and served a full three years. He saw a great deal of action in the western theater, including Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone’s River, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta campaign, as well as a lot of hard marching, short rations, bureaucracy, delayed pay, and officers and comrades who were as menacing as the rebels. He also lost some use of his left arm to wounds, and a brother and a stepbrother to death, but somehow managed not to lose weight, even on army rations. Bobrick weaves excerpts from Baker’s expressive letters, most of them addressed to his mother, into his own excellent narrative continuum that conveys Baker’s milieu and the progress of the war so clearly that even readers new to the subjects should be engrossed. Complete texts of the letters constitute part two of this worthy, betimes heart-rending addition to the Civil War literature.”