of this actual Civil War memoir brings to life the dry humor and grim conviction of teacher-turned-soldier Freeman Colby. Fiercely proud of his Granite State heritage, Freeman Colby bows to no one - not the rowdy students of his rural one-room schoolhouse, not the high-handed Union army officers in town, and certainly not those Rebel traitors causing all that trouble down South. But Colby needs work, and his ne'er-do-well little brother Newton needs looking after, so the boys enlist with a new regiment promising three years' pay and plenty of adventure in a growing war...