Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Letters of William Cross Hazelton of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry Regiment

By: Peter G. Beidler

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Synopsis: A riveting, on-the-ground account of the American Civil War by a Union cavalryman who survived most of the historic conflict’s biggest battles. William Cross Hazelton spent four years in the Civil War as a brave and devoted member of the Union cavalry. During that time he corresponded with Fannie Morrill, the young woman who would become his wife. His letters describe the life of an Illinois volunteer in the Army of the Potomac, the military unit that fought Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in most of the big battles of the Civil War: Williamsburg, Richmond, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Hazelton describes the battles from the viewpoint of an ordinary cavalryman slogging through the mud, following erratic orders, surviving for days on enemy turf eating nothing but hardtack, and wondering why the Union army, though superior in numbers and supplies, kept losing battles. Later, when Lincoln was assassinated, Hazelton became part of the cavalry posse that chased John Wilkes Booth across the Potomac. His letters breathe new life into a war so devastating that it still scars the American psyche, while exhibiting a moral perspective far ahead of its time. Army of the Potomac is an essential, eye-opening account of one of America’s most harrowing epochs, and was a finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.