Soldier's Story

A letter written to my dear wife... last Monday gave some particulars about my own movements and those of the army. I propose to write from day to day upon these pages and when an opportunity comes, send them home.....

On September 15, 1861, Major Isaac N. Smith of the 22nd Virginia Infantry began an epistolary account of his adventures under the command of General John B. Floyd. Written in the form of a diary that he proposed to send to his wife (living in Union territory) whenever possible, this remarkable document lends considerable insight into the Confederate campaign in western Virginia, where in the first stages of the Civil War the Rebels hoped to stem the invasion of Union forces. The Federal army was considerably interested in the region, the control of which would secure strategic water and railroad routes into the South. A Soldier's Story: The Double Life of a Confederate Spy is the fascinating account, incorporating extensive passages from his diary, of Smith's service in the army–first as a field officer and later as a spy.

When the Civil War broke out, Virginia in many ways was a microcosm of the forces tearing at the young nation as a whole. The government in Richmond, in eastern Virginia, was controlled by representatives of the land owners–and slave owners–from the east. Western Virginians complained bitterly that their interests were not adequately represented, in part because substantial plots of arable land in hilly western Virginia (and therefore votes) were hard to come by and in part because there were many people in the west who could not afford or didn't care to own slaves. As lines began to be drawn in the sand, many sons and fathers–including Smith and his father–found themselves face to face as enemies. Eventually, these tensions would result in the creation of two states. West Virginia and Virginia.

The educated son of a well-to-do western Virginian family, Isaac Smith–like many other young men at the time–joined the volunteer militia on the side of the Confederacy. In his case, Smith was more concerned with the defense of his home (he had only recently married) and his state than with the defense of slavery and the agricultural society it supported. Ironically, under the leadership of the dangerously incompetent General John B. Floyd, a former governor of Virginia, the Confederates almost immediately lost control of western Virginia to the Union army.

The diary begins at this point and follows Smith as his situation worsens until he is forced to resign his post; then, letters and documents reveal his entry into the Confederate secret service.

Weaving Smith's devastating first-hand accounts of Floyd's retreat into eastern Virginia with an overall account of fighting in the Kanawha Valley, historian and author David Phillips presents a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Civil War and the way that it affected the lives of combatants and civilians alike. Broadly illustrated with photographs, paintings, and innovative terrain maps, A Soldier's Story is the utterly captivating portrayal of the war from the point of view of one remarkable young man.