What the Private Saw: The Civil War Letters & Diaries of Oney Foster Sweet

"The generals did not see what the privates saw." So wrote U.S. Civil War veteran Pvt. Oney Foster Sweet, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, 43rd Pennsylvania Volunteers (14th Reserves), Battery F (Ricketts' Battery), 1861-1865. His previously unpublished letters, diaries, and retrospective pieces offer a unique glimpse of the war from the view of a private simply trying to survive a deadly conflagration in which one in five combatants perished. This first-hand account of what the private saw is a distinctive addition to the many existing volumes on the American Civil War. The book is edited and annotated by Larry M. Edwards, an award-winning author, editor, and investigative journalist