Jottings from Dixie

It was not unusual for soldiers in the Civil War to write regular letters to newspaper editors back home. Stephen Fleharty's writings are unique not because he acted as the regimental spokesman but because he authored his own column, "Jottings from Dixie." His letters in two Rock Island, Illinois, papers - first the Argus and later the Union - were written for the general public, especially the friends and relatives of the men serving with him in the 102d Illinois Infantry. In this volume, Philip J. Reyburn and Terry L. Wilson have collected all fifty-five of Fleharty's numbered columns,…