The memoir traces the author's journey from a free-born childhood constrained by pervasive racial prejudice, through Civil War service with the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Connecticut volunteers, into a long ministerial career and active involvement in the A.M.E. Church. It combines autobiographical narrative, a regimental sketch and wartime recollections, reflections on ecclesiastical life and the condition of African Americans, and a selection of sermons, essays, articles and resolutions. Daily diaries compiled over years supply detailed incidents and personal observations intended as record and inspiration.