John H. Rielly, an Irishman from New York, served a harrowing term of enlistment. Rising to the rank of Sergeant, Rielly participated in a number of hotly-contested battles ("I did," he wrote to explain his arduous service, "belong to Gen Corcoran's fighting brigade."), was wounded, captured, maltreated and imprisoned, and barely escaped with his life. In his few words Rielly draws a vivid picture of one soldier's life.

Yet Rielly's entry also gives evidence of memory's fluidity, and its ability to alter facts. Taken prisoner in August of 1864, Rielly narrative states that his imprisonment caused his weight to drop to seventy-three pounds, and that he suffered from a number of debilitating diseases and wounds, such that he was "in a critical condition." Nonetheless he also claimed to be present at Appomattox Courthouse in April of 1865, surely not enough time after release for him to recover. Further, the scribe who recorded his entry dropped Rielly's release weight another five pounds for reasons impossible to ascertain based on the extant records.

While the inconsistencies are minor, they serve as a reminder that memories are above all subjective, intensely personal, and easily altered by outside influences.