John Gill Lemmon, a native of early Michigan, grew to manhood during an era of increasing sectional controversy in the United States that led to its Civil War. The difficulties faced by the Lemmons were experienced by many of pioneers who moved to the frontier in that era. The Lemmons were a family of strong moral convictions, particularly concerning slavery. As an abolitionist, John considered it his duty to defend the Union. He interrupted his education and burgeoning career as a school teacher/administrator to join a volunteer cavalry regiment raised in Michigan in 1862. Like many farm boys who joined the Northern and Southern armies with little immunity from the communicable diseases that flourished in the close environment of military life, Lemmon quickly fell ill. Before he experienced combat, he was hospitalized and spent more than a year as a patient or as a hospital attendant in Nashville. He rejoined his unit just as General William T. Sherman launched a campaign that led to the fall of Atlanta. In about four months, he was in the thick of military action, which he described in recollections recorded in memoirs and newspaper articles. After surviving a harrowing, four-day mounted circuit of Atlanta, he was captured while foraging for grain for his horse. His accounts of his military experience in the Atlanta campaign and as a prisoner of war in the infamous camp at Andersonville, and the less-well-known, but equally brutal facility at Florence, South Carolina, are gripping. By the time he was liberated, Lemmon weighed less than 100 pounds and would never fully recover from the physical and psychological ordeal he experienced. After returning briefly to Michigan, he joined other members of his family who had moved to California after gold was discovered there. In a high valley near the Nevada border, his interest in botany was rekindled. He explored eastern California and western Nevada, earning a reputation as a gifted amateur botanist and attracting the attention of Asa Gray, George Engelmann, and other professionals who encouraged his interest. His descriptions of botanizing expeditions provide insight into the pioneering era of the region and its botanical history. Lemmon's interest in botany eventually involved him in the political development of California and Oakland, where he settled around 1880. His marriage to Sara Plummer, who shared his interest in botany, adds another dimension to his biography and occurred about the time his travels expanded to include the entire West Coast, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. After the marriage the scope of the work broadened to include her because their accomplishments are inextricably intertwined. A friend of John Muir, Luther Burbank, and other naturalists, John Lemmon's life provides an interesting perspective to important themes in American history--the Civil War and the settlement of the West"--Amazon.com