Dignity of Duty: The Audio Experience

Also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

A special podcast on the life and times of Major Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath—a mid-ranking field officer and family man who witnessed much of America's 19th Century history with a rifle and pen in hand, and who is the subject of a new PMML book and companion exhibit. Featuring narration by Army Master Sergeant Jay Johnson and the voice of Marine 1st Lieutenant R.B. Downey as Gilbreath himself.

Severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War—a wound that would haunt him for the rest of his life—Gilbreath not only went on to a successful 37-year military career, but also bore witness to the coming of age of America as we know it. In his later journals, he shares many remarkable experiences, including a hazardous 175-mile journey by stagecoach in the Texas frontier during the Indian Wars; a shipwreck off the Gulf coast; travels in a wagon train pulled by mules with pet names; the second Great Chicago Fire; and the establishment of Fort Custer in the Montana Territory, where his daughter was born in a tent with his cook acting as a midwife.

A personal odyssey of service from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War, Dignity of Duty: The Journals of Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath, 1861-1898 is now available in hardcover and e-book formats.