‘remarkable war story’ — Tulsa World
Col. Thomas F. Berry kept a diary throughout his service in the Confederate Army, under Generals Morgan and Forrest. Once the Civil War came to a close he decided to publish this diary in full, to instruct future generations of the true history of the Confederate struggle in the South, and the bloody and vicious battles that occurred.
Berry’s experiences are thrilling and colorful. He was captured by Yankee soldiers on no less than thirteen occasions – and on each one he managed a daring and ingenious escape. Wounded in several battles, he was twice told his leg would need to be amputated, but he refused, knowing he could not live without being able to fight for the cause he believed in.
Berry narrated his experiences with famous figures such as Captain Charles Quantrell, and the outlaw Jesse James, as well as attempting to correct the, what he calls, slanderous misconceptions about his brother, Captain Samuel ‘One-Arm’ Berry.
Berry’s memoir is full of daring escapades, blood-thirsty skirmishes, and near-death experiences. It is a thrilling account of life on the front-line during the American Civil War, and will be of interest to historians and enthusiasts of the period alike.
Thomas Franklin Berry survived the war, and died in 1917 at the grand age of 85. After the war, he became surgeon general of the Oklahoma division of the United Confederate veterans, and in 1913 he published his memoirs, Four Years with Morgan and Forrest.