The first volume of family letters reveals the characters of two strong and complex people and throws new light on a great deal of the history of the period--the gallantry of Ames the Union officer, the political life in the Reconstruction South. In Volume II, the letters show the Ames' family life and the development of their six children through the troubled times of the 1880's and 1890's; on the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, General Ames once again served his country.