1491 Days in the Confederate Army by W. W. Heartsill

Imagine you spent fourteen hundred and ninety-one days fighting the bloodiest war in your country’s history. And while you were fighting in and witnessing the ravages of war, you wrote down what happened . . . each and every day . . . while it was all still fresh in your memory.  That’s what young William Willitson Heartsill, a store clerk from Marshall, did from April 19, 1861 to May 20, 1865. Heartsill was twenty-one years old when a big war started. He decided to join the army and became a private in Walter P. Lane's Rangers - official name: Company F, 2nd Regiment, Texas Cavalry, led by Colonel Rip Ford.  At the beginning of the war, the W. P. Lane Rangers stayed in Texas, guarding against Indian attacks on the western frontier. Heartsill’s writing about this time gives us rare insight into ranching, Texas frontier forts, the Indians, Mexican affairs, and the natural glory of western Texas. During their service in Texas, however, the boys were itching to go fight beyond the border