Army Life of an Illinois Soldier: Including a Day-By-Day ...
Wills, Charles W. / Simon, John Y. / Kellogg, Mary E.
A high-spirited idealist who craved excitement when he enlisted in the Eighth Illinois Volunteers for three months and reenlisted for three years, Wills, of Canton, Illinois, wrote frequently to his sister Mary Emily Wills and kept a diary of General William T. Sherman's campaigns during the last year of the war. A student and store clerk before enlisting, Wills found that army life "beats clerking". He enlisted as a private at the age of twen...