J. Mark Powell’s new book, “Witness to War,” tells the story of the Civil War objectively through the letters of everyday people who endured it.
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — J. Mark Powell, a journalist with the InsideSources syndicate, became fascinated with the Civil War when he was just 9 years old.
The passion has lasted through the decades and now, aged 65, Powell has produced an extraordinary book, “Witness to War: The Story of the Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It.”
His book stands out in a crowded field of Civil War books (which are known to number over 60,000, and speculated at twice that) because it allows readers to experience the war firsthand through excerpts from 432 letters, written by everyday people: Union and Confederate soldiers, and civilians — men, women, a few children, and slaves.
These previously unpublished letters, which come from Powell’s private collection, cover the full sweep of the Civil War from Lincoln’s 1860 election to the war’s end in 1865.
Over the years, Powell bought the letters as he could afford them. He introduces each excerpt in the book as though he were introducing readers to a dear friend of his.
This week, Powell discusses the book on “White House Chronicle,” the news and public affairs program which airs on select PBS and public, educational and government cable access channels. The audio airs on SiriusXM Radio’s P.O.T.U.S., Channel 124, and as a podcast, which is available on Apple and Spotify, among other platforms.
On the program, Powell talks lovingly and passionately about how he cadged, bought, and otherwise assembled the letters.
They comprise the most extraordinary voice of people who endured through the war, from a widow imaging her husband in bed beside her to a letter describing how on the Saturday morning before the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Massachusetts 1st “intermingled freely” with Confederate soldiers, before “the two lines of pickets had to separate and ‘go to work’ as a Rebel expressed it.”
None of these writers, Powell told Host Llewellyn King and Co-host Adam Clayton Powell III, could have anticipated that these very personal communications would be published. He also explained how letters were delivered during the war, and how complex and conflicted feelings were about it, both as it raged and in its aftermath. One writer said, “Now that the cruel war is over, and I look back and see the many lonely homes, I wonder what it all meant.”
King said, “In the 29 years ‘White House Chronicle’ has been on the air, we have seldom had such a moving, insightful and totally absorbing episode as this one with J. Mark Powell, talking about the Civil War and the voices he has unearthed from this crucial chapter in American history.”
In one of the book’s letters, read by Powell at the end of the broadcast, a freed slave, Lizzy, expresses concern for her former owners, takes a dig at their parsimony with food, and celebrates her freedom in Canada:
[Location unknown; presumably Canada]
March 11, 1866
Dear Mistress
It has been quite a few years since I last wrote to yourself and the master in hopes that the two of you will also rejoice as I do for my brethren that have been freed by Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation. Colored by the thousands have found their way to Canada.
The master and yourself will be happy to know that I have been doing my part in helping as many as I can get established in their new home.
Mabel and Jobe have joined me here at the school. They have asked that I write you and let yourselves know that they are well.
In all, thirty-four of your former captives reside here with me. They hold no ill will toward you and the master.
We all worry that you will soon starve like we servants have in your keep. We shall write again soon.
Forever free,
Lizzy
Llewellyn King
White House Media LLC
+1 202-441-2702
llewellynking1@gmail.com
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