The Road to Richmond: The Civil War Letters of Major Abner R. Small of the 16th Maine Volunteers. (The North's Civil War)

It's rare to find a truly memorable wartime memoir written by an "ordinary" soldier. Most are seriously flawed in one way or another. Perhaps memories are dulled by the passage of time, or subconciously altered by the author's exposure to media hype. All too often it's painfully obvious that most memoirists are not professional writers or even very good story tellers. Every now and then, however, a diamond will emerge from the rough ore that makes up the mass of the genre -- Eugene Sledge's "With The Old Breed" immediately springs to mind -- and we'll be treated to a memoir that combines poignancy, honesty and genuine narrative skill. Abner Small's "The Road to Richmond" is one of those uncommon gems, a wartime memoir that captures the full spectrum of emotions and experiences endured by a common soldier, never falling into the trap of glorification, or pretending to offer glib, easy answers.Small was an ordinary citizen from a small town in Maine at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was one of the early volunteers, and he managed to survive the entire conflict, experiencing along the way nearly everything a volunteer soldier could experience -- day-to-day boredom in the long periods waiting for operations to commence, routine life in camp and on the march, combat as a skirmisher and in line of battle, and a POW. During his service, he kept a diary, even while in Confederate prisons. Many years after the war, he used his diary and his letters home as the basis for his memoir. The truly amazing thing is that Small, without the benefit of an extensive education, had a natural talent for writing. While he always remained active in GAR veteran's groups, he never became enamored of his service, or combat in general, even when time, society and the media of his day tended glorify and make heros of those who fought. He portrays himself as an ordinary soldier caught up in the whirlpools of events, neither heroic nor cowardly. His ambivalence toward war comes through clearly, yet he just as clearly feels he was part of something much larger and greater than himself. He doesn't pretend to have the answers to the larger questions dissected by historians. He didn't regret his service, but he also didn't buy the concept of "Heroic War". He had the rare ability to portray his ideas and memories in clear, concise, vivid prose. He had the knack of finding wonderful metaphors to convey his points. Even more surprising, his style of writing translates very well to a 21st century audience. Readers today won't find his writing stilted, wordy, or dated, as is so often the case with works from the Victorian era. His writing shows just how similar we still are to our 19th century forebears. It's an example of the kind of concise writing Strunk and White would approve of.The one weakness in Small's memoir is when tries to convey the larger movements of the armies. When he talks of this regiment, or that brigade moving to the left or right, rather than simply what he or his immediate comrades saw, he tends toward the dull, flat and pedantic. This is in part because his intended audience -- other veterans -- were of course privy to how Civil War armies were organized and moved on the battlefield, whereas this type of esoterica is alien to later generations.Critics far more knowledgeable than me rate this book very high, and I can see why. I would certainly place "Road to Richmond" among the top 5 best wartime memoirs by ordinary soldiers I have read. Very highly recommended for any Civil War enthusiast, or anyone interested in an honest, poignant look into the hard life of a soldier/sailor.