I got this book from my local public library, and found it a great read. The author writes clearly and he is not judgemental. He has a fine sense of humor. Author Thomas P. Lowry listed seven types of books about the Civil War and for each type, he offered his own imagined title of the type (only a couple of these imaginary book titles are added here):
1. Memories of famous officers
2. Regimental histories
3. Controversy and second-guessing
4. Technical analysis ("The Suspender Shortage as a Factor at Gettysburg")
5. General Histories
6. Collections of Letters ("A Boy in Blue Writes Home")
7. Diaries
He notes that only the last two might have much discussion of sexual matters. Letters home would not likely include salacious details of the soldier's life, and if they did, we can be sure that the soldier, now a respected citizen and veteran, would edit out a good deal, and I loved this phrasing: "But even more prone to the censor's wrath were those letters and diaries edited for publication by the (usually) unmarried daughter of the now-deceased veteran, whose hallowed memory was hardly to be defamed by imprudent recollections of whores, clap, dysentery, and farting in the tent." ( p 9, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell)