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Cavalryman, Infantryman and Prisoner of War This personable first hand account of the American Civil War was written by William Tyler of the 9th Illinois Cavalry of the Union Army. It is an eye-witness narrative where the good nature of the author shines through the text and, as a consequence, as well as being a first rate source work of the horse soldiers in blue it is also a story full of humour, adventure and anecdote. The first part of the narrative deals with the business of war from the perspective of a trooper in the Union Cavalry, but Tyler’s role was soon to change due to his singular success in the carrying of an important dispatch. As often happens, especially in military life, having demonstrated some talent Tyler became the ‘expert on hand’ and was given further dispatches to carry through perilous, enemy occupied country on a regular basis. He gives the impression that he relished the independence of action and the adventures that came his way. Discharged after a wound, Tyler re-enlisted, not to return to his old unit but in the 95th Illinois Infantry because he wished to be close to his brother who had joined that regiment. In a battle near Guntown, Mississippi, against Forrest’s Confederates, Tyler was captured and sent to the notorious Andersonville prisoner of war jail. In the final part of his book he describes the appalling conditions and brutality suffered by the Union men in Andersonville which makes for revealing if harrowing reading.
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