A physician before the American Civil War, William Lapham first entered service with the infantry and served in the role of doctor. When his Maine regiment mustered out in 1863, he wanted back into the fray, but as a fighting soldier. He raised the 23rd Maine Light Artillery and served throughout Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign with Burnside's IX Corps. He saw plenty of action at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, before following Grant to Appomattox. Written for his grown children, this personal history is not a sweeping tale of campaigns but a soldier's story of standing up amidst shot and shell and living the camp life of the Union army. With humor and compassion, Lapham wove a lively portrait of one Union battery.