Born to Blush Unseen

John Riley Phillips was born to a poor farming family in Western Virginia, a typical border region with divided loyalties during the War Between the States. Although illiterate until the age of 12, Phillips became a scholarly and patriotic young man that readily pledged his allegiance to the Southern cause. While most participants of this great American conflict saw limited campaign, and/or battles, few recorded their experiences or survived to serve long after being wounded. Phillips not only made a concise written journal of his experiences from the very first battles in Western Virginia through virtually every battle and campaign of the Eastern Theater, but amazingly this was accomplished in spite of being wounded a total of 6 times. Each entry of Phillip's diary is prefaced with an explanation of the campaign and situation to which he refers. The author through extensive research has revealed a picture of these series of events and explanations for the student, and opened questions and new views for the scholar of the American Civil War.