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This stunning document is the work of a common foot soldier blessed with extraordinary perception and articulateness, who happened to have fought in many of the war's most dramatic engagements, such as the Second Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and Chickamauga. Coming from a family whose loyalty to Southern nationhood transcended its disdain for slavery and the rationales for the war itself, Fletcher joined the famed Texas Brigade under General Stonewall Jackson. He was wounded several times and escaped from a moving Union Army prison train before he, and his compatriots in gray, surrendered to the victorious forces of the North. After retiring from the lumber business in East Texas in 1902, William A. Fletcher decided to record his remembrances as a veteran of the War of Secession, and soon after he privately published this fascinating account of his exploits. But a fire destroyed all but a few copies before they could be distributed. One copy of Rebel Private: Front and Rear did make it to the Library of Congress, though, and it was soon discovered by Civil War historians. Today, William A. Fletcher's colorful memoir has become the voice of the Civil War frontline grunt speaking to the modern reader with the intensity of personal experience and a vividness of detail that gives it a riveting "you-are-there" quality.