William Elwood Patterson (1841-1916) was born on the Patterson Plantation in Randolph County, North Carolina. His family moved to Jasper County, Illinois, when he was nine or ten years of age. August 12, 1861 he enlisted in Company K, 38th Illinois Volunteers, and served until he was honorably discharged at the close of the war. Prior to the Civil War, he was a teacher; after the war he was a farmer and served Jasper County as the justice of the peace and notary public. W. E. Patterson's diary was originally written in a small booklet of approximately ninety-four pages covered with cardboard and marbleized paper. Apparently, some of the entries found in his diary were made on the battlefield soon after the battle, while others may have been added later when he returned home from the war and read letters that he had sent to his father and his mother. His diary notes that while in the Union Army, his travels took him through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. He fought in many battles and was wounded four times at Chickamauga. Chapters include: Jasper County, Illinois; Missouri to Alabama; Alabama to Kentucky, by Way of Tennessee; The Battle of Chaplin Hills at Perryville, Kentucky; Bowling Green to Nashville; The Battle of Stones River; Skirmishing at Tennessee; the Battle of Chickamauga; and Wounded, Captured, Paroled, Home. Detailed footnotes, an appendix, and an index to full-names, places and battles add to the value of this work.