Birthday of Mr. Petersburg, George S. Bernard, 12th Virginia Infantry, Author of "War Talks of Confederate Veterans" and "Civil War Talks"

Today, August 27, is the birthday of Mr. Petersburg--George S. Bernard, Esq., author of War Talks of Confederate Veterans (1892) and Civil War Talks (2012).  

None of the soldiers of The Petersburg Regiment (12th Virginia Infantry), wrote more than George S. Bernard.  A graduate of the University of Virginia, he was a lawyer in Petersburg when he joined the Petersburg Riflemen as a private in 1859.  The Riflemen became Company E of the 12th.  He went off to Norfolk in April 1861 and was discharged in September 1861 after a bout of typhoid fever.  In February 1862, after recovering, he joined the Meherrin Grays as a sergeant, and the Grays were assigned to the 12th in Norfolk as the regiment's second Company I.  Wounded and captured at Crampton's Gap in September 1862, he was exchanged and put on recruiting duty at Cumberland Court House, about 60 miles southwest of Richmond.  After recovering from his wound, he transferred back to the 12th's Company E as a private.  Wounded at Hatcher's Run in February 1865, he was on furlough at the time of the Appomattox surrender and had tried unsuccessfully to rejoin his regiment.

After the war he returned to law practice and served in the state legislature.  He also wrote prolifically about the war.  He was the first historian of the 12th Virginia Infantry, the Petersburg Regiment.

George S. Bernard

From War Talks of Confederate Veterans

In 1892, he compiled and edited War Talks of Confederate Veterans, which included some of his own articles.

He had a sequel ready for publication in 1896 when it disappeared.  The manuscript showed up again in 2004 at a flea market, where it was purchased for $50 and sold to the History Museum of Western Virginia for $15,000.  Hampton Newsome, John Selby and I were honored to edit the manuscript into Civil War Talks: Further Reminiscences of George S. Bernard & His Fellow Veterans, which the University Press of Virginia published in 2012.

He also left letters and diaries at the University of Virginia, a notebook at Duke University, manuscript fragments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a letter collection in private hands.

I drew heavily on his writing in The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War: A History of the 12th Virginia Infantry from John Brown's Hanging to Appomattox, 1859-1865 (Savas Beatie, 2019), winner of the 2019 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Unit History.  Soldiers such as Bernard did most of the Distinguished Writing.