Nancy A. Moran

Field Music: from Antietam to Andersonville - the Civil War Letters of Lyman B. Wilcox Nancy A. Moran

"Field Music" explores the poignant story of a teenaged boy's journey to manhood from Berlin, Connecticut through the battlefield of Antietam, Burnside's Mud March, the Siege of Plymouth, North Carolina and the horrors of Andersonville. The Civil War letters of Lyman B. Wilcox, a young Union drummer in the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, are reprinted, along with research on Wilcox's life, including his family, history, regiment, and hometown. Many of Lyman B. Wilcox's own drawings are included, as well as pictures of his family and letters sent home, mostly to his brother Robert M. Wilcox, who married famed poetess Ella Wheeler. "Field Music" provides a view of a Civil War soldier's life through a young drummer's eyes, as well as the context of a struggling, tight-knit family in mid-nineteenth century Connecticut.