Ball's circumstances and experiences allowed him to glimpse the war through two sets of eyes, that of a loving husband, and of an increasingly disillusioned physician. The inclusion of Ball's medicinal recipe book is the first of its kind to appear in print completely annotated. Readers will find themselves educated about the medical and herbal lore of that era.

Wartime letters include correspondence of Union and Confederate sympathizers and soldiers of all ranks. Authentic illustrations accompany insightful missives by Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Whitman, Davis, and many of their contemporaries.

In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project, with the goal of remembering Americans who have served their nation and preserving their letters for posterity. Since then, over 50,000 letters have poured in from around the country. Nearly two hundred of them comprise this amazing collection -- including never-before-published letters that appear in the new afterword. Here are letters from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf war, Somalia, and Bosnia -- dramatic eyewitness accounts from the front lines, poignant expressions of love for family and country, insightful reflections on the nature of warfare. Amid the voices of common soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, nurses, journalists, spies, and chaplains are letters by such legendary figures as Gen. William T. Sherman, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernie Pyle, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Julia Child, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Collected in War Letters, they are an astonishing historical record, a powerful tribute to those who fought, and a celebration of the enduring power of letters.

A history of the First World War told through the letters exchanged by ordinary British soldiers and their families.??Letters from the Trenches reveals how people really thought and felt during the conflict and covers all social classes and groups Ð from officers to conscripts and women at home to conscientious objectors.??Voices within the book include Sergeant John Adams, 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, who wrote in May 1917:'For the day we get our letter from home is a red Letter day in the history of the soldier out here. It is the only way we can hear what is going on. The slender thread between us and the homeland.'??Private Stanley Goodhead, who served with one of the Manchester Pals battalion, wrote home in 1916: 'I came out of the trenches last night after being in 4 days. You have no idea what 4 days in the trenches means...The whole time I was in I had only about 2 hours sleep and that was in snatches on the firing step. What dugouts there are, are flooded with mud and water up to the knees and the rats hold swimming galas in them...We are literally caked with brown mud and it is in all?our food, tea etc.'??Jacqueline Wadsworth skilfully uses these letters to tell the human story of the First World War Ð what mattered to Britain's servicemen and their feelings about the war; how the conflict changed people; and how life continued on the Home Front.

The letters that are collected in this book tell a love story: that of Eric Appleby and Phyllis Ryan, during World War I. Eric Appleby was from Liverpool. An engineering student at the start of the War, he had been in his school Officer Training Corps, and in the Royal Engineers Territorials. He enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1914 and was sent to Athlone for training. At a dance there he met Phyllis Kelly, who was brought up in Athlone, where her father was a solicitor. The collections consist of some 200 letters, field service postcards and telegrams. Eric's 1916 diary has been used to verify locations and events. The letters cover Eric's experiences from the time he left Athlone in March 1915 until he was killed in October 1916 at the tail-end of the Somme offensive. They show how much he depends on Phyllis's love and her letters to him to help him deal with the horrors of war. descriptions of his four leaves home, to Liverpool, Dublin and Athlone, because Phyllis asked him to write about their love days together. Although there is only one, unposted letter from Phyllis, the story that develops testifies to their mutual regard and throws light also on Phyllis's personality, because Eric comments at length on her views and news and, as requested, writes about their time together.

Vividly depicting life both on the battlefield and at the home front during the Civil War, "Love and Valor" is a priceless collection of letters exchanged between Captain Jacob Ritner and his wife Emeline. While Jacob recounts all the battles he fought in compelling detail, Emeline movingly records the lives of those left behind to raise families and manage farms in their husbands'absence. "Love and Valor" is also the story of a family of Iowa abolitionists who help to make this book a must read.