TROY — The Miami Valley Veterans Museum (MVVM) welcomes Civil War historian Rex Maggert on Wednesday, Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day, at 9 a.m.

Join fellow veterans around Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts as Maggert takes guests back over 180 years to the battlefields of the “War Between the States.” In “The Daily Life of a Civil War Soldier” Maggert will focus on the everyday events of what life was like for a private in the civil war.

He brings his audience firsthand accounts using two diaries, one from Charles Smith in the 32nd Ohio infantry regiment from Delaware county and Charles Grosvenor in the 147th infantry regiment from Troy. Original letters from Patrick Atkinson to his wife in the 22nd Michigan regiment show how life was for the family back home. There will be days men spent time in southern and northern prison camps. Charles also made sketches, and Maggert has many to present on the MVVM widescreen.

Maggert first became interested in the Civil War when he discovered a relative in his family tree who was a Civil War veteran. He began doing research and that led to participating in re-enactments, Civil War talks and more. Including stories of 10-year-old boys who would accompany their fathers on campaigns.