New Edition of Boy of Battle Ford Now on Sale

For more than a century W. S. Blackman's, The Boy of Battle Ford has served as a classic when it comes to descriptions of antebellum Southern Illinois and as well as life as a soldier during the western campaigns of the Civil War.

Blackman turned 21 just weeks after the fall of Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War. More than four decades later he used his war journals as the basis of his autobiography.

From his boyhood years on the Battle Ford farm in Southern Illinois to his own life and death experiences on the battlefield, Blackman finds the lessons of life in his own struggles for bothy physical survival and spiritual faith.

The new 2014 abridged paperback edition is edited by Jon Musgrave with a new introduction, footnotes and a full index. The 240-page book retails for $18.