Margaret Junkin Preston was highly respected by her peers as a woman of notable literary talent and sensitivity toward others. Although Preston wrote prose, poetry, sonnets, ballads, and travel sketches, she was best known for her verse. Being closely connected to the military and military life through her husband and brother-in-law, Preston's work reflects events and feelings emphasizing a period beginning immediately prior to the Civil War and following the war to its close. She successfully conveys in her writing the emotions that she encountered in dealing with the hardships and losses inflicted upon her and her family during the war, including the loss of siblings and parents to death and political differences.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to one of the most distinguished educators and Presbyterian clergymen of his day, Reverend George Junkin, and Julia Rush (Miller) Junkin, Margaret Junkin's childhood years were inundated by education. When her...