“This is a pretty picture. here I am sitting before a guard fire writing at midnight with my knee for a desk and all around the fire are sleeping guards … it is not time to wright.” Cheap pocket journals for the common person became hugely popular during the U.S. Civil War and played a significant role in what we know about it. It played a bigger role at the time in connecting people and entertaining lonely soldiers of the day. Sort of the iPhone of the 1800s, in a much slower, maybe more glorious way. Thought some might be interesting in this blog on it.