Like many men of his generation, Tom Livermore left college, "stretched" his age, and enlisted as a private, June 24, 1861...he was only 17. By the end of the American Civil War, he was a 21-year-old colonel with no trade but war. The wounds of war seemed too close and personal to publish during his lifetime, but he HAD to write them down. Starting in 1867, the still-young Livermore penned an exciting, detailed, and valuable memoir of his time with the 18th New Hampshire Volunteers in the Civil War. It was left to his children to publish this narrative and leave a welcome addition to the canon of Civil War literature. At Gettysburg, Malvern Hill, and other important battles, Livermore led men and rose in rank, getting wounded in the course of events. His memoir is full of good humor: "I was so vexed with pain that I swore at a Frenchman in my company roundly for being out of his place, and then commenced behaving myself."