The Privations of a Private

This book is a revealing and important Civil War memoir. Marcus B Toney was a convinced Methodist, confederate, and slavery partisan who became an early volunteer for Confederate service from his home near Nashville, Tennessee. He served with the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the campaigns in West Virginia, at Shiloh, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness, where he was captured. Much of the interest and importance of this volume lie in Toney's sober and detailed reporting of his experiences as a Federal POW, of the war's immediate aftermath, and of the growth and appeal of the Ku Klux Klan directly following its formation.