author
James Carson Elliott
b. 1845
A North Carolina teacher, civic leader, and former Confederate soldier, he is remembered for a vivid firsthand memoir of the Civil War. His writing preserves personal memories of camp life, combat, imprisonment, and the world he returned to afterward.
1 Audiobook
The Southern Soldier Boy: A Thousand Shots for the Confederacy
by James Carson Elliott
About the author
Born in Cleveland County, North Carolina, on July 12, 1845, he later became known as a teacher, writer, and local civic figure. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate army, experiences that would shape the book he is best known for.
His main surviving work is The Southern Soldier Boy: A Thousand Shots for the Confederacy, published in 1907. The book is a personal narrative rather than a polished literary memoir, and that directness is part of what makes it notable: it offers a close-up account of military service, the siege of Petersburg, prison life, and the memories he carried long after the war.
After the war, he returned to civilian life in North Carolina and remained active in his community. Today, his name endures mainly through that memoir, which readers and historians use as a firsthand window into one veteran's perspective on the Civil War era.