author
Ansel D. Nickerson
d. 1896
A Civil War veteran turned his service into a lively firsthand memoir, mixing humor with the daily realities of army life. His surviving book offers a ground-level view of the Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers and the experience of an ordinary soldier.
1 Audiobook
A Raw Recruit's War Experiences
by Ansel D. Nickerson
About the author
Known today for A Raw Recruit's War Experiences (1888), this American writer left behind a personal account of service in the Civil War. The book identifies him as a late private in Company B of the Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers and was printed in Providence for private distribution.
His memoir stands out for its plainspoken, firsthand perspective. Rather than telling the war through grand strategy, it focuses on what it felt like to be a new recruit, making it a useful and engaging record of everyday military life.
The cataloging used by major library and public-domain sources lists him as having died in 1896. I was able to confirm his authorship and military connection from digitized editions and library records, but I did not find a reliable portrait image to include.