What the Private Saw: The Civil War Letters & Diaries of Oney Foster Sweet

“What the Private Saw” is definitely one of the very best of the many published collections of Civil War letters and diaries. Pvt. O. F. Sweet of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery wrote prolifically to members of his family and kept a diary from 1863 until just after the close of the war. . . . Numerous period photographs supplement the account. “What the Private Saw” does just that—provide a very clear picture of the Civil War as seen and experienced by a private soldier of the Union.
—Gene C. Armistead, author
Horses and Mules in the Civil War

“The generals did not see what the privates saw.” So wrote U.S. Civil War veteran Pvt. Oney Foster Sweet, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, 43rd Pennsylvania Volunteers (14th Reserves)
Battery F (Ricketts’ Battery), 1861-1865.

His previously unpublished letters, diaries, and retrospective pieces offer a unique glimpse of the war from the view of a private simply trying to survive a deadly conflagration in which one in five combatants perished.

This first-hand account of what the private saw is a distinctive addition to the many existing volumes on the American Civil War.

The book is edited and annotated by Larry M. Edwards, an award-winning author, editor, and investigative journalist.