Leslie James Peterson

Ancestors in the Attic Leslie James Peterson

The Civil War is easily the darkest, most fascinating chapter of American history. Its horrors have reverberated for more than 150 years, and the events of the war continue to affect families today.



In Ancestors in the Attic, the descendants of Union soldier James Atwater Barrett share a breathtaking collection of letters, diary entries, photographs, and other historical documents that together tell a story of love and war.



A clerk in New York at the onset of the war, twenty-nine-year-old James Atwater Barrett felt duty bound to enlist in the Forty-Eighth New York Volunteer Infantry. What followed was four years of battles, sickness, and near-fatal wounds. Meanwhile, Barrett's fiancée, Jane Farmer, wrote with love and concern from his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.



Consisting almost entirely of primary sources, Ancestors in the Attic provides a stunning look at a soldier's life during the Civil War. Barrett participated in many famous battles, including the Battle of Fort Wagner, and even watched famous nurse Clara Barton tend to the wounded. Anyone interested in the Civil War will relish in this detailed account of one man's survival through America's bloodiest conflict.