On Wheels and How I Came There
Private Will B. Smith
language
(, March 5, 2010)
.......Giving the Personal Experiences and Observations of a Fifteen-year-old Yankee Boy as Soldier and Prisoner in the American Civil War This personal memoir of the Civil War was published in 1892. Author's Preface. I have studiously avoided inserting anything concerning which there was the least doublt. If even my comrades can detect any errors I am positive they will be but slight matters of dates, which cannot affect the truth of my story. Of every injury to myself or assistance received from mu comrades which I have mentioned there is a record on file in the Pension Department at Washington. So fictitious names appear anywhere in the book. The persons and places mentioned are real, and the experiences and events related actually occurred. I had no thought of writing a book until after the following occasion. One afternoon, while sitting in my chair in my Florida home, I thought of some beef heads which were issued to us at Andersonville Prison during the winter of 1861. Being unoccupied at the time, I concluded to write a short description of the circumstances for my children. I gave the story this title: "The Fate of a Beef Head at Andersonville, as Witnessed by a Boy Prisoner." It appears in this volume, substantially as I then wrote it, as Chapter XXX. The evening after I wrote it I received a call from a journalist, a personal friend, who, after listening to the story, urged me to have it published. This indorsement, together with the facts, in themselves interesting, that while a mere boy I was in the army, was captured and confined in different Confederate prisons, led me to believe that possibley I might write an account of my experience and observations as a boy soldier and prisoner that both young and old would read. I did so, and herewith submit this humble volume to the public. If its perusal shall in any way contribute to a genuine patriotic sentiment the author will be amply rewarded. Lawtey, Fla., May, 1892 Will B. Smith Note: although some words in this memoir did not make it through the digital system, this book is worth the read.