As a young man coming of age in the 1850s and 1860s, he exhibited a strong desire to experience the world that existed beyond the simple family farm in rural Maine. It was from this background that his seduction into a soldier's hell began.
The tumultuous events of the time became one of the driving factors for his giving into that seduction and voluntarily placing his feet on the pathway to a man-made hell on earth. Once on the path, he willingly accepted the transformation from civilian to soldier and awaited his long anticipated baptism of fire.
His version of the apocalyptic nightmare of war first revealed itself near the small Virginia town of Manassas. Different versions of the same nightmare later surfaced on the rivers of the Midwest; places like Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. Lastly, his personal soldier's hell ultimately led to new horrors on the battle lines of Richmond and Petersburg before he and the country could commence the healing process.
Unfortunately for the soldier, the four-year hell on the battlefields of the Civil War was not the end. What followed was a lifetime of dreams and memories and a search for the salvation and forgiveness that only comes at the end of all things.
