A different kind of eyewitness to war-with laughter
The humorous military memoir is no new phenomenon. There is a rich heritage of this style of writing created by a natural tendency for men in adversity to seek humour at every opportunity and, indeed, to recall those moments in preference to memories of pain and misery. Inevitably, there are those soldiers whose sense of the comic soars above their comrades and so the 'military comedian' is born. The more acute this sense is, the more the tale parts company with reality and the straightforward reporting of actual events. This is one such book and all the more enjoyable for it. Is it fiction? It is certainly not all fact. Did the author know what it was to be a Union horse soldier? That certainly rings true because this book contains the depth of insight and knowledge that commonly comes only from first hand experience, and as the author comes in contact with the sharpest end and tragedy of war the humour is replaced-as it always is in such works-with a touching humanity. Behind the humour there is a real sense of the times-made the more poignant by exaggeration-and this creates a book filled with rewards of every kind.