Sumner U. (Sumner Upham) Shearman

Born in 1839, Sumner Upham Shearman is remembered for his firsthand Civil War memoir Battle of the Crater; and Experiences of Prison Life. In it, he drew on his own service as a Union soldier to describe one of the war's most dramatic battles and the hardships that followed.

Later known as Rev. Sumner Upham Shearman, he appears to have spent part of his later life in the ministry. That combination of soldier and pastor gives his writing a distinctive tone: practical, reflective, and closely tied to memory rather than grand military history.

Shearman died in 1914. Today he is chiefly remembered through the survival of his personal wartime narrative, which offers listeners a ground-level view of combat, captivity, and endurance in the American Civil War.