"This Treasure-Trove of Stephen Dodson Ramseur's candid and thoughtful letters to his family, friends, and wife lays bare the innermost thoughts and emotions of a young Southerner devoted to securing the Confederacy's independence. It is destined to take a prominent plasce among the classics of primary Civil War literature." GORDON C. RHEA, author of in the Footsteps of Grant and Lee. "Stephen Dodson Ramseur well represented that class of aggressive young generals to whom Robert E. Lee entrusted his Army of Northern Virginia in battle. These letters effectively recapture the life and character of an educated and articulate Southerner who remained both convinced of the rightness of his cause and truly devoted to his family and friends until he fell in battle at Cedar Creek in October 1864." CAROL REARDON, author of Pickett's Charge in History and Memory