Seven Months in the Rebel States During the North American War, 1863 is the first volume in a new series entitled “Seeing the Elephant: Southern Eyewitnesses to the Civil War.”

Written by Prussian Captain Justus Scheibert and originally translated into English and published in 1958, these are the observations of a German who was with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and had access to General Lee, General Stuart, President Jefferson Davis, and others. Scheibert kept a diary during this visit to the United States, his observations decidedly pro-Confederate - he even took part in some of the battles. As a result, the reader gets a firsthand account of some of the important battles of 1863. Highly recommended to Civil War enthusiasts.