The Civil War Diary of Union Army soldier Charles M. Jenkins, including his final battle action, mustering out, and return to California, from May to December, 1865.

An account of the discovery of artifacts in the collection of the Historical Society of Southern California. Highlighted is the Civil War diary and a letter written by Charles Myers Jenkins, the only enlistee from Los Angeles to see combat for the Union during the Civil War. Included is a transcription of the November 1864 letter Jenkins wrote to his mother after his release from a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp.