Letter collection edited by Timothy J. Orr

On May 21, 1861, his twenty-first birthday, Philadelphia needle-maker Ambrose Henry Hayward joined the War for the Union. Eager to uphold his country's honor, he marched to the front with 1,500 comrades in the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a hard-fighting regiment led by politician-turned-soldier Colonel John W. Geary. After three years, a promotion to first sergeant, and a Medal of Honor recommendation, Hayward decided to reenlist for another three-year tour of duty. He wrote his father, "I have not been hasty in taking upon myself renewed trials and tribulations, but . . . I am convinced that, come what will, I never will be sorry for it." Already, Hayward's arduous service had taken him to battlefields in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and Georgia. He had survived the blood-lettings at Bolivar Heights, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, and Taylor's Ridge.

After returning from his veteran furlough, Hayward participated in Major General William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, fighting in the Battles of Dug Gap, Resaca, and New Hope Church. Finally, on June 15, 1864, he received a mortal wound at the Battle of Pine Knob. After dying inside a Union hospital on June 19, his earthly remains were laid to rest inside Chattanooga National Cemetery. Last to Leave the Field chronicles Hayward's years at war by examining the letters he wrote to his family--his father, mother, brothers, and sister--who lived in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Hayward's letters reveal the complex emotions of a soldier who always resolved to be, as one comrade reported, "the first to spring forward and the last to leave the field."