author
Joseph W. Grant
1836–1883
A Rhode Island Civil War veteran turned his first months in uniform into a vivid firsthand memoir. His writing captures camp life, battlefield shock, and the personal cost of war with direct, unpolished honesty.
1 Audiobook
My first campaign
by Joseph W. Grant
About the author
Born in 1836, Joseph W. Grant is best known for My First Campaign, a memoir based on his service with the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers during the American Civil War. The book was published in Boston in 1863, soon after the events it describes, and stands out for its immediate, eyewitness feel.
Grant enlisted in September 1862 and served only a short time before being severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of that year. Records connected with his burial identify him as a private in Company F, 12th Rhode Island Infantry, and note that his leg was amputated after the injury.
He died in 1883. Although little else was easy to confirm about his life from the sources found, his memoir remains a valuable personal account of a volunteer soldier's experience, preserving the fear, routine, and resilience of Civil War service in a voice that still feels close to the moment.