This early work by Louisa May Alcott was originally published in 1863 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Alcott, watched men go off to war from her home town and wrote in her diary, " as I can't fight, I will content myself to help those who can." On her 30th birthday she went to Washington D. C. to sign up as a nurse. She spent 6 weeks serving in a field hospital and what came out of it were this slightly fictionalized and highly successful sketches of what she had seen.