Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union

Similar to the book, "Life of Johnny Reb", Bell Irvin Wiley has put together the life of being a soldier in the Union army. From muster to homecoming this books covers many subjects. Subjects such as northern soldier views on visiting the South for the first time, civilians, slavery, camp life and more. There was a chapter which covered Union perspective about going into battle and fighting which I found especially interesting. Chapter content is backed by letters from actual soldiers that add important weight to the quality of information in this book. I simply hated to put the book down when I read it as it had some funny situations of soldier life mixed with the hard drama of warfare. This book is a must have for those seeking to understand the Union soldier from many perspectives. It doesn't get into boring battle detail or mention officers at length which I found refreshing for a change. It simply covers just about every aspect of being a Union soldier during the Civil War and should be in everyones' Civil War library! 5 STARS!!