Cecil D. Eby Jr.

The Civil War diaries of David Hunter Strother, known better to his contemporaries as "Porte Crayon," chronicle his three years of service in the Union army with the same cogency and eye for detail that made him one of the most popular writers and illustrators in America in his time. A Virginian strongly opposed to secession, Strother joined the Federal army as a civilian topographer in July of 1861 and was soon commissioned, rising eventually to...