It was not unusual for soldiers in the Civil War to write regular letters to newspaper editors back home. Stephen Fleharty's writings are unique not because he acted as the regimental spokesman but because he authored his own column, "Jottings from Dixie." His letters in two Rock Island, Illinois, papers - first the Argus and later the Union - were written for the general public, especially the friends and relatives of the men serving with him in the 102d Illinois Infantry.

In this volume, Philip J. Reyburn and Terry L. Wilson have collected all fifty-five of Fleharty's numbered columns, which clearly and concisely relate not only the life of the average soldier in his regiment but also his own opinions on politics, slavery, and southerners. In fact, many of Fleharty's vignettes are similar to those of World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle.

With a newspaperman's eye, Fleharty chronicles the history of the regiment from its organization in Knoxville, Illinois, to its participation in the fall of Atlanta, and his own trials and tribulations in camp, on the march, and in battle. Fleharty's columns also vividly describe the culture of the South - of blacks and whites, of slaves and freedmen, of pro-Union whites and secessionists - in a style at once informative and entertaining to his audience.