Suggested Reading
Ohio Volunteer: Childhood & Civil War Memoirs of Capt. John Calvin Hartzell and Charles I. Switzer (contributor). This little-known book deserves a place among the best memoirs of the Civil War--and not just of the war, either. Half the book recalls Hartzell's life growing up a farm kind in northeastern Ohio. The rest recounts his experiences, as a junior officer of the 105th Ohio, in some of the key battles of the war. Apparently, Hartzell never sought higher education, but he was blessed a keen eye, a near-photographic memory, and a light touch with the pen, able not only to charmingly evoke nostalgia for bygone days on the farm, but to vividly describe what it was like to go to war. Editor Switzer contributed a cogent introduction that provides some useful explanation. Highly recommended. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005)