Bluegrass Confederate

Diaries by Kentucky Rebels are a rarity; the soldiers, cut off from their homes and families in the Union Bluegrass, were themselves atypical. In this massive and eloquent journal, Captain Edward O. Guerrant evocatively portrays his unusual wartime experiences attached to the headquarters of Confederate generals Humphrey Marshall, William Preston, George Cosby, and, most notably, John Hunt Morgan. Able to see the inner workings of campaigns in the little-known Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and east Tennessee, where some of the most vicious small-scale fighting occurred, Guerrant made scrupulous daily entries remarking upon virtually everything around him.

William C. Davis, director of programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and a professor of history at Virginia Tech University, is the author of numerous books about the Civil War, including Look Away: A History of the Confederate States of America.
Meredith L. Swentor lives in Pace, Florida.