The Little War of Private Post: The Spanish-American War Seen Up Close By Charles Johnson Post

Charles Johnson Post (1873â€"1956) received not one but two handmade red flannel bellybands for protection against tropical fevers when he enlisted as a private in 1898 with the 71st New York Infantry. He was paid a monthly wage of $13.00, with an additional $1.30 combat pay per month. Setting off for what he later termed the little wars that are the mere trivia of history, he came back to write a mild chronicle of many little men who were painting on a big canvas, and of their little epic routines of life, with a common death at their elbow. It is only the little, but keen, tribulations that made the epic routine of an old-fashioned war. The Little War of Private Post: The Spanish-American War Seen Up Close

In his later years Charles Post wrote of his experiences during the Spanish American War in both the United States and Cuba. A good view of the war by a low ranking enlisted man that is written in journal form. The Little War of Private Post: The Spanish-American War Seen Up Close A true undiscovered gem of a book. Post was smart, cynical, slightly bibulous and minutely observant, all of which makes his book a useful corrective to Teddy Roosevelt's account of the same campaign--not that TR's isn't without its pleasures and insights, but he had a reputation to maintain. Charles Johnson Post, not so much. Paperback A great military memoir. Post, like a lot of young men went to war to see what it was like. This lively account of a nearly forgotten war is crisply written with a contemporary feel to it. Post, who worked as a newspaper illustrator, took his paintbox and sketchbook to Cuba. The book contains 13 pages of Post's watercolors and drawings. In his own words Post states: ... for those who are in war and battles and on the fighting line, there is no triviality in shaking dice with death. It makes no difference whether a man gets his along with twenty thousand others, or falls while on outpost duty all by himself. He is a hundred percent casualty to himself. For him there is no lesser percentage. What more could there be to give?

Post takes the reader into the world of jungle warfare, and tropical disease that claimed about as many as did bullets. His keen eye focuses on the blunders, poor uniforms, obsolete rifles, inadequate training and terrible food. A number of his paintings were published in Life and American Heritage 0803287577