author
Augustus Meyers
b. 1841
A Swiss-born American soldier turned memoirist, he left behind a vivid firsthand account of army life on the frontier and during the Civil War. His writing stands out for its plainspoken detail and the unusual path that took him into the U.S. Army while still very young.
1 Audiobook
Ten years in the ranks, U.S. Army
by Augustus Meyers
About the author
Born in 1841 in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Augustus Meyers immigrated to the United States with his family as a child. He is best known not as a career literary figure, but as a former soldier whose memories became an important historical memoir.
Meyers enlisted in the U.S. Army at an unusually young age and served for ten years, including during the Civil War. Those experiences became the basis for Ten Years in the Ranks, U.S. Army, published in 1914, a firsthand narrative valued for its lively detail about military routine, frontier service, and wartime life.
His work remains of interest because it captures history from the ground level rather than from the viewpoint of generals or politicians. That direct, personal style gives readers a clear sense of everyday army life in nineteenth-century America.