“War pinches time,” he said. “And as with me, it kills slowly.”

A young man of no celebrity, John Moore Lancaster of Fayette County, PA, responded to Lincoln’s call to arms in 1862. Being the “tallest in the room,” Lancaster began his service at age nineteen as a corporal. Through thirty-two campaigns, Antietam through Appomattox, he received wounds that haunted him emotionally and physically for years. Confined to bed in the months before his end, he revealed details and demons to his two young granddaughters.

This is part one of his story.

Documented by his great-great-grandson, this book asks Margaret Lancaster Bowman (one of his granddaughters) to retell the stories of his comrades in arms and the realities of infamous battles from the perspective of one who served in the Company E, 155^th regiment PA Volunteer Infantry.

Stories & anecdotes include:

• Absurdities and atrocities of camp life
• Endless marches
• Chaotic horrors of battle
• The tragedy of burying a friend
• Unrelenting scars of killing another

There is no glorified romance here. Lancaster’s legacy takes aim at those credited for winning battles and praises the “grunts” as forgotten heroes. He is an everyman for all carrying baggage beyond war’s end, reminding us that each soldier is more than just a name and deserves glory no matter how late.

by Ed Peterson
Page Count: 269
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: December 2021
Imprint: Sunbury Press
Genre: History

HISTORY/United States/Civil War Period
HISTORY/Military/United States
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/Historical
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/Military