Although hundreds of soldiers in the Civil War kept diaries, Douglas French Forrest's diary, published in 1979, is unusual for it is a chronicle of naval service in Europe.  A literate and perceptive observer, Forrest illumined his personal history with descriptions of people, scenes, and events discovered in a two-year odyssey from Charleston to Europe by way of the Caribbean; throughout England, Scotland, and the Continent; and home to Virginia via Cuba and Texas in 1865.

Edited by William N. Still, Jr.