This is the story of the eleven Companies of the "Fighting Fourteenth Regiment" as seen through the eyes of James William Covington, a self-styled "blacksmith with a literary turn" and member of the Regimental Band, along with seven other soldiers who recorded their thoughts and feelings in journals and letters to their loved ones. They were common men who lived in the most uncommon of times and as such, were called upon to perform uncommon deeds. It is seen against the backdrop of our country's greatest struggle; a war that pitted brother against brother, father against son, and took the lives of more Americans than all the combined wars before or since.

This is the story of the four McDonough County residents from Bushnell and Prairie City who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroic acts during the Civil War. Chaplain Milton Haney, Sergeant Jacob Sanford and Corporal Robert M. Cox were volunteers in the Fifty-fifth Illinois Regiment and Samuel McConnell served as a Captain with the 119th Illinois Volunteers, But this story is not theirs alone. One-hundred twenty-nine brave men from Bushnell, Prairie City and Marietta served in Companies F and G of the Fifty-fifth Regiment and 35 gave their very lives to preserve the union that we now call the United States of America.

The Ninth Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers was organized and sworn in at Camp Moore, Louisiana, on July 6, 1861. Of the ten companies, six had joined for the duration of the war and the remainder (which included Company D) for a period of twelve months. The regiment, which was commanded by Colonel Richard Taylor, was immediately dispatched to Virginia but arrived too late to be engaged at the First Battle of Manassas. So many men had fallen to disease that by the early spring of 1862, the entire Confederate Army was re-organized and the 9th Louisiana Infantry Regiment joined with the 6th, 7th, 8th Regiments and Wheat's Battalion under the command of Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor with Col. Leroy Augustus Stafford in command of the 9th Louisiana Infantry. Known as "The Louisiana Brigade" Taylor's Brigade was placed in General Richard Ewell's Division and joined the command of General Stonewall Jackson. During the "Valley Campaign" between May 7 and June 9, 1862 it was engaged at Somerville Heights, Front Royal, Middletown, First Winchester, Front Royal, Mount Carmel, Cross Keys, and the "Coaling" at Port Republic. Following the Seven Day's battles, the Louisiana Brigage followed Jackson to Second Manassas, Antietam and finally Fredericksburg. Following Jackson's death, they followed Lee to Gettysburg, Spottsylvania and the siege of Petersburg. Of the twelve thousand Louisiana men who came to Virginia in 1861 and 1862, the Louisiana Tigers had 373 men on duty when the folded their colors at Appomattox. The 9th Louisiana Regiment was the largest remaining regiment among them with a compliment of 68 men. They surrendered but were never defeated.