Following The Flag

March with the Army of the Potomac as the American Civil War hardens from first enlistments to nation-shaping battles. You are there with them. Charles Carleton Coffin, a seasoned journalist, follows Union columns from August 1861 to November 1862, delivering a complete war correspondent account built from battlefield dispatches and letters, quick observations, and hard-won perspective.Part annotated civil war history, part 19th century military narrative, Following the Flag captures Union army camp life as surely as it traces the army of the potomac campaigns across the eastern theater 1861-1862. From muddy roads and hospital tents to the thunder of Virginia and Maryland battles, Coffin records what armies look like up close: organisation, morale, leadership, fear, and endurance. Readers of peninsula campaign history and those seeking an Antietam campaign account will value its immediacy as a primary source history edition, while teachers and students will appreciate its clarity as an american history classroom text. Written close to the action, the narrative shows how news travelled, how rumours hardened into orders, and how ordinary soldiers made sense of strategy. Coffin stands at the hinge between reporting and literature, preserving voices and impressions that later histories smooth away. For casual readers it is gripping narrative non-fiction; for classic-history collectors, a cornerstone volume in Civil War eyewitness writing today.Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today -- a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.