John Wesley Bone was eighteen when he enlisted as a private with the North Carolina 30th Regiment. He was a common Confederate soldier who experienced almost every aspect of the War Between the States. He fought in battles at Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Cedar Creek. At the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Bone was struck by a bullet that pierced his chest and lodged in his backpack. After three days lying between the lines of fire, he was rescued and taken to Gordonsville Hospital, then furloughed home. He recovered and five months later rejoined his regiment. Bone was at Appomattox Court House when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865. This memoir is his story, written forty years after the surrender. The editors have annotated the memoir and added material about John Wesley Bone's life before and after the war. Illustrations and battlefield maps clarify the content of the memoir.