Two Wars: The Autobiography & Diary of Gen. Samuel G. French, CSA

Born in New Jersey in 1818 and a graduate of West Point in 1843. Samuel G French won distinction in the Mexican War as a lieutenant of light artillery, serving in the same company with Braxton Bragg, George H. Thomas and John F. Reynolds. He was actively engaged at Palo Alto, Resaca and Monterey, receiving two brevets for gallantry and a serious leg wound in the battle of Buena Vista. Settling later in Mississippi, he readily immersed himself in Southern culture. With the outbreak of war in 1861 French, despite his Northern birth, plainly proved that the South did not have a more devoted adherent. He eventually reached the grade of major general and division commander, serving with Gen. James Longstreet in Virginia, under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in Mississippi and Georgia, and under Gen. John Bell Hood in some of the Army of Tennessee's last battles. His division saw bloody action at Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Allatoona, Franklin and Nashville, all graphically described by French's able pen. Confederate Gen. Stephen D. Lee called French's narrative, first published in 1901 and long out of print, "one of the most interesting books gotten out since the War Between the States."