By now, Charles Lynch was a veteran. At 25 battles and skirmishes, including Winchester, Lynchburg, Cedar Creek, and others, Corporal Lynch and the 18th Connecticut Volunteers paid a heavy price.

At the end of exhausting and bloody days (as well as the quiet ones), Lynch sat down at the campfire with his diary and recorded the events that would form the greatest experience of his life. He recorded the funny, the sad, the horrible, and the inspirational things he saw in “this cruel war.”

When it was over, he was glad the bloodshed had ended but was sad to leave his comrades. And he records the bitter despair they felt when they got the news of Lincoln’s assassination.