This is a work that for more than a century has been an invaluable primary source for historians of the Civil War era. In this long-awaited scholarly edition, editors John David Smith and Micheal J. Larson provide a detailed introduction and chapter-by-chapter annotations to highlight the lasting significance of John Eaton's narrative.

"This memoir is an annotated reprint of a book that was originally published in 1907. Its principal author, John Eaton (1829-1906), was a chaplain in Ulysses S. Grant's army who as early as 1862 was charged by Grant with setting up contraband camps for fleeing slaves. Eaton eventually became general superintendent of contrabands for the Department of the Tennessee, and his approach to humanitarian aid and educational efforts, even as war was raging, was one of the first systematic attempts to deal with how newly freed people would be assimilated into the Union as citizens following the war. Later, Eaton's efforts would be the basis for the Freedman's Bureau and its mandate to bring newly freed slaves into American society"--