George S. Bernard, a Petersburg lawyer and Confederate veteran, compiled and edited War Talks of Confederate Veterans, which was published in 1892. It consisted of addresses by himself and other Confederate veterans, with comments thereon by veterans of both sides. Bernard intended his own contributions to form parts of a history of his regiment, the 12th Virginia Infantry, also known as the Petersburg Regiment because six of its ten companies came from Petersburg. In 1896, Bernard had another volume of War Talks ready to be published. It disappeared, however, and was not recovered until 2004, when the manuscript was purchased at a flea market for $50 and sold to the History Museum of Western Virginia for $15,000. John Horn (author of The Petersburg Campaign and The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864) and Hampton Newsome (author of Richmond Must Fall, about the October 1864 fighting around Petersburg), agreed to edit the manuscript along with Dr. John Selby of Roanoke College. The book covers garrison duty in Norfolk in 1861-1862, Seven Pines (May 30-June 1, 1862), the Seven Days (June 25-July 1, 1862), the Gettysburg Campaign (June-July, 1863), the battles for the Weldon Railroad (August 18-21, 1864), the battle of Burgess Mill (October 27, 1864), and 1865's Appomattox Campaign. Peter S. Carmichael of Gettysburg College, author of The Last Generation: Young Virginians at Peace, War and Reunion, has said, "This superbly edited collection will become an essential volume on Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia."
