This is a charming eyewitness account of the battles, marches, and hardships of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of Missouri troops enlisted to serve the Confederacy. Interwoven into the story is a description of how members of these two brigades corresponded with their families back home while blocked from easy, direct communication by intervening Union forces. The mail carriers, one Capt. Grimes and a Miss Ella Herbert, were the major instruments of the "Underground" mail service. Battles mentioned include: Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Corinth, Iuka, Port Gibson, Siege of Vicksburg, Sherman's Georgia Campaign, Franklin, and Nashville. The author includes comments about the brutal, costly, marauder-bandit warfare in Missouri conducted by irregular troops and common criminal elements taking advantage of wartime conditions. A short appendage to the volume gives a history of the Confederate Home in Higginsville, Missouri, and biographical sketches of the people responsible for its establishment. Students of Civil War operations west of Appalachia will find this history fascinating and eye-opening in many ways. The text is attractively illustrated with photos of many of the principals. A new full-name index has been added.