The great strength of this book is in highlighting the ethos of Southern gentlemen like Willy Pegram. Carmichael demonstrates that men like Pegram were engaged in a holy war and as such, performed heroic feats on the battlefield. So if you're one of those people who are still facinated by "the cause" of this war, then this is a book for you. If you're looking for a book on Confederate artillery tactics, techniques, and procedures, however, you'll have to look elsewhere.

I found this book a very interesting read. In it, Peter Carmichael describes the military career of the young Confederate officer, William Pegram. The books gives a nice overview of his successful role in the Army of Northern Virginia as an artillery officer. Most of the text chronicles Pegram's swift rise through the ranks as he boldly leads his men, cannons, horses and caissons on the battlefield. Mr. Carmichael uses many of Pegram's letters home to tell his story. More importantly, Pegram's view of the war, slavery, and the Confederate Cause, come through as well.

Mr. Carmichael does a fantastic job of revealing how some of the young Confederate officers like Pegram viewed the Civil War. Since most Civil War books focus more on the Generals than the junior officers who actually fought the battles, I felt that this book really brought a new perspective to my understanding of the conflict.

I do not recommend this book for those who do not already possess a good understanding of the Civil War. Instead, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has gained an appreciation for the war, and is looking to find out more about its participants. This book really opened my eyes about "the Southern Cause", and how it meant different things to different people.

More than just a blood-and-guts biography of a incredibly brave young officer, this book provides really very interesting insight into the minds and motives of educated Southern twentysomethings before and during the war. This is a fine offering from one of the better young historians working today.

Like other auto biographical books popular to the day, Sorrel has followed in his fellow soldiers' style of seldom covering their lives while detailing Confederate Army history. While following the Confederacy as an aide to Longstreet during the Civil War, Sorrel rarely gives us an opportunity to look inside of him and judge for ourselves his emotions, thoughts or ideas during the years he served in as Longstreet's aide. Instead, we are offered a vague history of the events unfolding that this man saw firsthand. It was refreshing to read that he didn't include other events that he wasn't a part of like a John Gordon did in his reminiscences. Sorrel is fair to all of the events and persons involved though his story isn't truly told. His accounts of Gettysburg and other more memorable events during the war were disappointedly covered. He would sometimes write of an incidence or event in his life though it was vague, quick and lacked useful information. This book reminds me of Walter Taylor's who was General Lee's aide which was written in the same format with the same lack of information or personal style. Sorrel does cover very little of his soldier life while spending many words focused on army movements and battles. I was also disappointed to read very little about Longstreet as I would have hoped to have. In conclusion, Sorrel writes very well, though unfortunately we are left with little content that reveals his true character or General Longstreet's for that matter leaving the reader wanting more.

Sorrel offers a look at the War for Southern Independence throught the experiences of his years as a staff member for some of the Confederacy's top brass - more to the point, Genl James Longstreet. Indeed, the reader is reminded that this account is NOT a war-account per se, nor a review of military actions. At best it is a somewhat rambling, though very coherent series of musings on a variety of topics. There is however, a light-hearted tone to the memoirs. G. Moxley rarely has a "bad" thing to say about anyone - he certainly seems to have no agenda, as those other writers of the postwar years who tried to settle their accounts by writing their own venomous, more mean-spirited versions of events to cast themselves in a better light. Finally, I'd suggest this for more versed readers of Civil War lore. Sorrel's constant "name-dropping" or battle references are quite meaningless to a novice student. Also of interest is to witness the writing style (vernacular) from that period. The flowery speech, sentence structure, etc., is an experience as well. It is reprinted in the "original" format as first published - another twist! You get the real "feel" of reading this as if it WAS just published. Again, despite my modest ranking, I would recommend this for those with a more Confederate slant (like me!)

There hardly exists a more insightful look at the Confederate High Command than Moxley Sorrel's memoirs. Personally, I rate it #2 among those of CSA general officers; following closely behind Edward Porter Alexander's "FIGHTING for the CONFEDERACY." Besides his fairly objective view of operations and personalities within both the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee; Sorrel's detailed observations of the inner workings of the ANV's command and staff greatly enhance the military historian's understanding of events. It is a MUST for any Civil War library. I look forward to my fourth reading of this enjoyable work.