Excerpt from Journal of Edmund DeWitt Patterson
Written in 1863; first published in 1966 in Yankee Rebel:
The Civil War Journal of Edmund DeWitt Patterson

A captured Confederate soldier records his thoughts

"Now, I am a prisoner of war on the little island of Lake Erie and with a prospect before me anything but cheering; entirely separated and cut off from the outside world, unable to take any active part in the struggle which is still going on between justice and injustice, right and wrong, freedom and oppression, unable to strike a blow in the glorious cause of Southern independence."

During the course of 1863, the fortunes of the two sides fighting in the American Civil War changed dramatically. As the year began, many Southerners expressed confidence that their struggle to...