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Although he was a successful businessman in Newark, Ohio, prior to the Civil War, Charles Dana Miller understood the necessity of leaving his business and his home to take part in one of the nation's most tragic conflicts. His account of what he saw, how he felt, and the hardships he endured as a soldier in the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry are presented in The Struggle for the Life of the Republic.
Brevet Major Miller served as the regimental adjutant and rose in rank to captain. His experiences in the western theater are accurately and vividly detailed as he describes the hardships and routines of camp life and the battles from Fort Donelson to Jonesboro, providing political insight into the events of the times. This postwar memoir includes descriptions and impressions of such important leaders as Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman and detailed accounts of the Ohio 76th Volunteer Infantry and the Army of the Tennessee's movements. Miller's narrative provides a rare firsthand account, from the perspective of an officer, of the battle at Arkansas Post, an obscure engagement for which there is little documentation.
Miller's memoir is an important addition to Civil War history and a welcome primary source of knowledge on the war's western theater.
