John Milton Hubbard

Born on January 17, 1833, in Anson County, North Carolina, John Milton Hubbard later lived in Texas and worked as a teacher. When the Civil War began, he joined the 7th Tennessee Cavalry and served in Nathan Bedford Forrest's command.

Hubbard is remembered for Notes of a Private in Forrest's Cavalry Corps, C.S.A., a memoir first published in 1909. Rather than telling the war from the top down, the book follows everyday experience in camp and on campaign, giving readers a direct sense of what life was like for an ordinary soldier.

That perspective is what makes his work last. Whatever readers make of the cause he served, Hubbard's memoir remains a firsthand historical document from a rank-and-file participant in one of the most studied conflicts in American history.