About the Dedication

The dedicatory page to the officers and men of the Fourth Regiment, North Carolina State Troops, is very similar to dedications made by surviving veterans in their own actual memoirs.

I made the conscious decision to use the Fourth NC because the regiment lost all its serving field officers in the Sunken Road during the Battle of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862.

 Chapter 1 of the Prologue 

This chapter accomplishes three main goals. First, it helps set the actual historical situation prevelent in the Eastern Theater, and to some extent in the Western Theater, as viewed in the South by the time the Army of Northern Virginia is poised to enter Maryland. Second, it serves to educate the reader about the uniforming and equipment and other items carried by the soldiers in the ranks of both sides at this stage of the War. (Note: The illustration in the chapter of a typical CS soldier in the ranks is the author himself.) Third, the chapter serves to introduce Jacob "Jake" Thompson, the supposed author of the "memoir" about his adventures and experiences during the Maryland campaign of the Army of Northern Virginia 150 years ago.

Next blog: Discussing the actual letter which helped me construct Jake's own letter home to his father in North Carolina. Stay Tuned!