Leon Louis

Louis Leon was a Confederate soldier who served in the Charlotte Grays, Company C, First North Carolina Regiment. He served from April 1861 to April 1865. In that time, he recorded much of that time spent as a soldier in his diary. He served as part of a unit of sharpshooters, and spent much of his time in Virginia. His diary describes what many would call an average Army life. It is spent mostly marching from one place to another, with the occasional battle interrupting the marching. In 1864 he would be captured with most of the rest of his unit in the Battle of the Wilderness. He then spends the rest of 1864-65 as a prisoner of war and describes the conditions he endured.

What is most interesting about reading this diary is that when you learn about the military history of the Civil War, you learn of it in the battles that were fought and the casualties that occurred. But, you don't think about the days that happen between those battles. Also, you see from this diary that he is fighting for the Confederacy, and that he is fighting for the freedom of it. He does not mention anything about slavery, and he never expresses any views on it. He also never talks about politics or anything of that nature. He is but a simple soldier doing his duty, as many probably were in this war. There are always those who fight for some noble, glorious concept, but many fight simply to protect themselves and their family.