In Defense of the Flag

"In Defense of the Flag" by David W. Stafford is a personal diary that belonged to a prisoner who escaped during the Civil War. The author tells his true war memoir as a prisoner who escaped and made his way back across Union lines. The narrative makes the reader feel as if he took each step moving forward to achieve freedom. Excerpt: «Now in the commencement of this narrative and tale of my early life, I must say that a good part of my life has been somewhat gloomy. At the time of my entering the service of my country I was seventeen years of age. It was just after the first and second engagements at Bull Run. My father was a poor man, the father of some nine children, and a shoemaker by trade. I had left home early in my youth, when about fourteen or fifteen years old, and at this time, just before the war, a boy's chances for labor and wages paid were very small. I worked for only seven dollars a month. This was the first labor I ever performed, working by the month. Oh, how my mind goes back to childhood days!»