Robert C. Carden

Born in Coffee County, Tennessee, in 1843, Robert C. Carden enlisted in the Confederate army at Manchester, Tennessee, in May 1861. He served in Company B of the 16th Tennessee Infantry Regiment until January 1865. The regiment fought in several crucial battles, including Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga, that took place in the Civil War's "Central" theater—that is, within Tennessee, Kentucky, and northern Georgia.

In 1911, Robert Carden traveled to Boone, Iowa, to visit one of his sons. While there, the old veteran met several of his former Union army opponents and was prevailed on to recount his personal story of life in the Confederate army. The stories were collected into a series of articles for Boone's local newspaper, and then found their way into a scrapbook kept by his grandson. Too fragile to copy or scan, the articles were transcribed by...