From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg

Wars change the course of history and touch in intensely personal ways the lives of everyone involved. Thankfully, surviving firsthand accounts offer modern readers a deeply personal window into earlier times. From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg: The Civil War Letters of William J. Kennedy, 55th Illinois Infantry, 1861-1863 , edited and annotated by Rachael E. Mellen and David A. Powell, constitutes a rich and informative glimpse into one such life. William J. Kennedy was a second-generation Irish-Am