Josiah Marshall Favill

The Diary of a Young Officer During the War of the Rebellion Josiah Marshall Favill

BULL RUN, ANTIETAM, CHANCELLORSVILLE, THE WILDERNESS, SPOTSYLVANIA, AND MORE

One of the first to answer Lincoln's call for volunteers to put down the rebellion of the southern states, Josiah Favill fought at Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania and other battles. Wounded twice, he served to the end of the war in the presence of some of the most famous commanders of the conflict.

Favill made insightful and candid assessments of the commanders and peers with whom he served, some of which may surprise you. He was never as enamored of McClellan as so many of his comrades were, though he initially had high hopes for Little Mac.

Along the way, Josiah never grew inured to the sights and sounds of war. Though he believed fervently in the rightness of the cause, he repeatedly recorded the horror of seeing men destroyed and he felt a sense of a melancholy over what the terrible destruction of war said about humanity.

But he also wrote of much humor and the great comradeship of his brothers in arms. At the end of the war, the young officer was not yet 24 years old.

Cited by historians, Favill's diary paints a vivid and colorful portrait of one young officer's experiences during the defining event of his life.