Heart Like A River: The Story of Sergeant-Major Newsom Edward Jenkins,

Heart Like A River is the Civil War diary and letters of Sergeant Major Jenkins of the 14th North Carolina Infantry from Littleton (Company A the Roanoke Minutemen), who incredibly survived the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, the Seven Days including Malvern Hill, Second Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Petersburg and Appomattox. He was twice wounded and twice captured including at Sharpsburg s Bloody Lane where he was at the epicenter of the fighting and later among the sacrificial 25 men at Appomattox that sought to delay a Federal division in some of the last fighting. He was also held as a POW at Fort Delaware for a time. Several post-war recollections in the form of letters to relatives give additional details about Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Appomattox. The material was compiled by Jenkins great-granddaughter, who includes her own impressions about the war in a series of essays titled A Great-Granddaughter s Perspective.