In this journal, the author describes his year-long walking adventures at the Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, a rare prairie remnant just seven miles northwest of Baltimore, Maryland. In his quest to make this wild place his "natural home" throughout the course of four distinct seasons, Wennerstrom examines and contemplates rocks and minerals, plants, animals, prairies, floodplains, woodlands, lakes, ponds, pastures, mines and mills, Indian artifacts, as well as local legends and folklore.

This book re-visits, in photos and words, the 1991 natural history book, Soldiers Delight Journal.

Includes the proceedings of the Society.

Jack Wennerstrom's passionate and abiding interest in the Potomac makes him the ideal guide. In Leaning Sycamores, he invites us to explore the rugged beauty and rich human history of the Potomac's upper reaches. The flow and rush of the current, the leaning bankside trees, the rocks and flowers, the people, places, and wild-life - all are lovingly observed and connected in his warmly personal account. In ten gracefully written chapters, Wennerstrom describes the river's geology and natural history, its long record of human habitation, and the ecology of its plants and animals. He relates memorable encounters with people who live and work along its banks, as well as time spent alone, fishing, rafting, and hiking. He writes of the magic of moving water and its powerful effect on mind and spirit. Drifting downstream or walking the riverbanks, Wennerstrom takes particular pleasure in discovering the Potomac's hidden corners, ghostly legacies, and natural splendors. What began as a weekend diversion twenty years ago, he explains, has become a deep passion that continues to expand and evolve. Leaning Sycamores is his beautifully written account of that journey.

An articulate and vivid artist, Randolph describes action in key areas of the eastern theater-northern Virginia, Charleston, and Richmond and its surrounds. His record of the Peninsula Campaign, the siege of Charleston, and finally the Bermuda Hundred and Petersburg Campaigns offers a rare look at the role which common soldiers played in master strategies. A former theology student and an unusually thoughful man, Randolph questions the military predation of civilian property and condemns the racial prejudices of his fellow soldiers. In addition to the immediacy of the diary, readers will appreciate the informative commentary and annotations supplied by Civil War historian, Stephen R. Wise.