Lost Soul

Sam Postlethwaite was a Confederate soldier buried in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island. Beginning with nothing more than a handful of dirt, author Les Rolston's innocent curiosity about this mysterious soldier's grave became a journey of thousands of miles that eventually led him to the soldier's family. The result is this factual account of Postlethwaite's odyssey and the author's determined efforts to learn his story.
Other important facets of this affecting historical account are the experiences of Postlethwaite's fourteen-year-old brother, who found glory with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley; and a boy from a prominent Rhode Island family who was emotionally ruined by the Civil War. Both their families, embittered by war, were destined to merge through a Civil War romance and marriage.
This book is a tribute to all of the people, Northerners and Southerners, who joined together to choose forgiveness and understanding over bitterness and hatred.

Les Rolston was born in 1954 and has studied American history for most of his adult life. His greatest interest is in the lives of ordinary people, who in times of crisis go on to do extraordinary deeds.
His first book, Lost Soul described his efforts to preserve the unmarked grave site of a Confederate soldier buried in Rhode Island. Les is the author of Long Time Gone: Neighbors Divided by Civil War and Home of the Brave: Selected Short Stories Of Immigrant Medal Of Honor Recipients Of The Civil War.
A Pea Coat Goes Home is a son's tribute to his father's memory. This is the story of a military pea coat issued in 1942 and of the bond that is created between a father and son. When a pea coat is found in the back of a closet many years after his father's passing, memories are stirred, stories remembered, and a legacy is restored through the threads of a pea coat.