This story, factually written, is of an officer serving in the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion. Through his daily diary entries and the several letters that he wrote to family members, the day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and obligations he assumed, even as a prisoner of war, provide us with a glimpse into life as it existed during this conflict in our nation's history. Alonzo M. Keeler provides us the opportunity to travel back to that time when North and South were antagonists and the entire nation was engulfed in this conflict. He not only provides a glimpse of routine army life, but a vivid description of what prison life entailed for those whose freedom was denied. No matter which cause one fought for, the descriptions of prison life were, in many instances, the same for both the blue and the gray.