Samuel Watkins was in virtually all the major battles of the western theater of the American Civil War. His memoirs, which provide a common soldier's viewpoint of the war, continue to be studied by historians and enthusiasts.

James M. McPherson, professor emeritus at Princeton University, is the author of Battle Cry of Freedom (winner of the Pulitzer Prize); Hallowed Ground; Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam; and many more best-selling and critically acclaimed books on the Civil War.