Although many books about the Civil War have been written by veterans, few provide an accurate and entertaining portrayal of the daily life of a soldier, as does
Corporal Si Klegg and
His “Pard.
” The book, first published in 1887, gives an inside look at the transformation from citizen to soldier and the diverse and constantly changing experiences on the
march, on the battlefield, in camp, and in the hospital.
Although the main characters, Si Klegg and his partner “Shorty,” are fictional, as is their company, Wilbur F. Hinman himself was a four-year veteran of the war. He speaks with the
authority of a soldier who participated in several battles with the Sixty-fifth Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which lost 25 percent of its strength to battlefield deaths and
disease. He gives a true voice to the individual soldier, presents a realistic picture of army life, and provides an accurate feel for how Civil War soldiers lived and died. The life of
a Civil War soldier is so realistically portrayed, both in the text and through the illustrations, that this book has become an indispensable reference for Civil War reenactors
attempting to perfectly reconstruct the experiences of the common soldier during the war. Allan R. Millett provides an introduction to this Bison Books edition.
