George Cary Eggleston was born in Vevay, Indiana on November 26, 1839. His older brother, Edward Eggleston, was also a well-known author. When the boys were still young, their father passed away, leaving their mother to raise four children on her own. After graduating from high school, Eggleston attended Indiana State University for a year, but at the age of seventeen, he inherited a plantation in Virginia - an event which dramatically changed the course of his life. He attended college at Richmond and became involved in the social and intellectual circles in the South. When the War Between the States began, he joined the Confederate Army, and the present work, which first appeared as a series of essays in the Atlantic magazine, was written to recount his experiences as a soldier in the war. Eggleston also wrote many more memoirs and novels before his death in New York City on April 14, 1911 at the age of 71.