A collection of 28 poems and 28 essays along with a selection of historical photos, sketches, and quotes that are dedicated to the lost and forgotten of the Civil War, by award winning author, Lisa G. Samia. Selections within this work earned her the award of FINALIST for the Artist in Residence Program for the National Parks Arts Foundation Gettysburg Poetry 2018. Each poem is a narrative, a story told from an imagined person who is witnessing and experiencing some event during the Civil War. Includes original sketch artwork "Bundle of Twigs" and "Unknown Confederate Soldier" drawn exclusively for this collection by artist, Shannon A. Reedy. The "Bundle of Twigs" icon is used to symbolize the hardships and suffering of the Civil War. The sketch "The Unknown Confederate Soldier" is of the headstones amassed at the Springwood Cemetery in Greenville, S.C. The inspiration of the collection comes from the very first poem and essay on Michael Dougherty of the 13th Pennsylvania Calvary. Michael was captured and imprisoned in several Confederate prisons such as Pemberton, Barrett's, Libby, Belle Island and finally served the duration of his sentence at Andersonville Prison in Andersonville, Georgia.Over the course of the 23 months and 17 days he was confined to prison, Michael kept a diary. It was only after I read the diary, especially regarding his confinement at Andersonville that the horror of this death camp came to life. Overcrowding, starvation, madness and sickness were prevalent throughout the prison. And it was Michael's daily written count of men who were dead or dying, stating them as numbers without names or faces, that the inspiration for this collection was brought forth.What of all of those thousands of soldiers, who were they? History tells us that after the Civil War many of these soldiers were eventually identified, yet what became of the ones who were not? And what about the civilians of the Civil War, those who starved to death, fell to disease or simply died of a broken heart? What became of them?Most of the poems and essays in this collection are based upon actual historical facts about a person or an event of the war. The narrator in each poem is an imagined civilian or soldier who was lost to history, yet through this creative venue is telling their story of what is was like to be at Shiloh, or be tended to by Louisa May Alcott, or watch John Wilkes Booth die on the front porch of the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865.The corresponding e