One of the most prominent nurses to serve in the American Civil War, Ada Smith was at the center of action. She met Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, and many of the other military men and civilians in the conflict. This lively and engaging memoir is like many of those by nurses of the Civil War. They saw the horrible cost of the war in terms of shattered bodies and shattered minds. They held the hand of many a dying man and Ada's story is very much the story of the human side of war. But they also heard the guns and had rifle balls whistling through their hospital tents. After the war, Ada continued her work to help veterans, as well as engaging in the fight for women's suffrage.