Title: Above a common soldier
First published: 1997
Description: First published as To Form a More Perfect Union in 1941, this rare volume of Civil War-era letters relates the poignant experiences of an English immigrant in the service of the United States Army as a noncommissioned officer, civilian employee, and Union volunteer. Frank Clarke served in Mexico, Missouri, New Mexico, and Bleeding Kansas, on the Sioux, Solomon River, and Utah expeditions, and in war-torn Tennessee and Mississippi.

After Frank's tragic death in 1862, his wife Mary corresponded with his English mother, detailing the daily struggles of a military widow and her five sons in frontier Kansas. Darlis Miller has kept George Hammond's original annotations and added a few new ones. Her introductions to the book and individual chapters provide biographical details on Frank's and Mary's lives and place their letters in historical context.
Subjects: Correspondence, Frontier and pioneer life, History, Military life, Pioneers, Soldiers, United States, United States. Army, Women pioneers, United states, army, military life, Frontier and pioneer life, west (u.s.), Kansas, history
Places: Kansas, West (U.S.)
People: Charles Francis Clarke (1827-1862), Mary Clarke
Time periods: 1854-1861, 19th century
LC classification: F596 .C43 1997