author
Preston Lafayette Ledford
1837–1922
A North Carolina veteran turned his wartime memories into a compact, firsthand Civil War memoir, written with the plainspoken voice of someone who lived the events himself. His book preserves the everyday hardships, loyalties, and losses that official histories often leave out.
1 Audiobook
Reminiscences of the Civil War, 1861-1865
by Preston Lafayette Ledford
About the author
Born in North Carolina in 1837, Preston Lafayette Ledford is best known for Reminiscences of the Civil War, 1861-1865, a memoir published in Thomasville, North Carolina, in 1909. Library of Congress cataloging identifies the book as a Confederate personal narrative connected with the 14th North Carolina Infantry, and genealogical records place Ledford's life from 1837 to 1922.
In the preface to his memoir, he explains that he wanted to save living memory before it disappeared. That purpose gives the book its character: less polished literary performance than direct testimony from a former soldier who believed ordinary experiences of the war deserved to be remembered.
Reliable biographical details beyond those basics are limited in the sources I could confirm here. What stands out most clearly is the record he left behind: a short, personal account of the Civil War that continues to be preserved by institutions such as the Library of Congress and Project Gutenberg.