In Charlestown, Massachusetts the call of duty by President Lincoln was received on July 25th, 1862. In an emotional display of patriotism, William H. Hodgkins joins the 36th Massachusetts Volunteers. In his journal, he describes life in the Union Army from the view of a Boston aristocrat. Promoted through the ranks to Captain, he is involved with many of the well known Generals of the Civil War as he describes Antietam, Knoxville, Petersburg, and other aspects of the Civil War including assisting in a surgical amputation, the execution of a deserter, the assassination of President Lincoln, and Washington at the close of the War.