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Historic letters and diaries are often extremely valuable and informative documents that historians use to learn about and report the history of the United States. Through these documents, historians are able to learn about specific locations during times of battles and other historic events. Diaries and letters also provide personnel information that informs the reader of experiences, thoughts, and emotions during our nation’s most important events. The diary of Seth James Wells not only provides personnel and historical information, but it forces the reader to compare their life to the life of a soldier at war. Seth James Wells was born on April 26, 1842 in Rising Sun, Iowa. Wells was a white American Union soldier who resided in Michigan following his birth. He began recording in his journal on November 3, 1862 when he was 20 years of age. While marching through many southern states such as Tennessee and other various areas, Wells would observe what was happening and record that information later that night at the military camps. Military marches, military life, weather and the quartering of troops were generally the kinds of information Wells would record in his diary. Wells continued his diary up to his date of