In the summer of 1863, Thomas Lewis Ware, a Confederate soldier from rural Georgia, and Franklin Horner, a Union soldier from the coal country of Pennsylvania, are on their way, with their respective armies, to Gettysburg. Along the way, they make daily entries in small, leather-bound diaries they carry in their waist-coat pockets or haversacks. Day by day, as they march and make camp, as they wait for orders and listen to rumors of the next battle, they record their thoughts and experiences until the day when they come almost face-to-face. They write about what's important to them - receiving mail, writing letters, having something to eat, pressing the hand of a friend, surviving combat...One will go home and tell of his experiences at Gettysburg; the other will not survive the battle. -- From the book jacket.