Under the Guns

Widow Annie Turner Wittenmyer spent the years of the American Civil War in the thick of exploding shells, shattered bodies, exhausted souls, and the great figures of the war. She was an advocate for better medical treatment and better diets for fighting men and personally took her cause to Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln. She held the hands and comforted many a wounded and dying solider from both sides and provided treatment to them alongside their doctors. She spares no detail and does not attempt to provide a history of the war. Her story is intimately human and will draw you in like few other memoirs. Julia Dent Grant was a friend with whom Wittenmyer spent time whenever Grant was at her husband's headquarters. She sat with Abraham Lincoln in his office at the White House discussing dietary issues when the telegram of Sheridan's victory in the Shenandoah arrived.