Harold Brinkman, local author of the book Dear Companion: The Civil War Letters of Silas I. Shearer, will be reading selections from the book tonight at Big Table Books.

The letters were written by Brinkman’s great-grandfather, Silas Shearer, to his wife while serving in the West during the Civil War.

Brinkman, a retired Nevada banker, decided to compile the Civil War letters in one volume after reading them and discovering the rich insight into the horror of fighting a war.

The letters “really brought back the fact that the Civil War, though it saved the Union, was just a terrible, terrible war,” said Brinkman in a recent press release.

Brinkman published the letters in a volume called Dear Companion after the greeting Silas Shearer used to address his wife. It was intended as a gift to his family and the state on its 150th birthday.

Dear Companion has received much acclaim from Civil War buffs. The first 500 copies printed were snapped up in less than two months. Brinkman ordered another printing to meet the demand.

“I was surprised at the interest in it,” he said in a recent release.

Library of Congress officials informed Brinkman that the letters are unusual because Silas Shearer served in the West along the Mississippi. “Most of the published stuff is farther east,” the press release explained.

Currently the letters are in clear plastic binders, but Brinkman intends to send them to the Library of Congress someday. “I’d rather let them go somewhere where they’ve got a chance to be used” by historians, the release detailed.

The reading by Brinkman will include an opportunity for autographs and group discussion of the the book. Copies of Dear Companion are $9.95 and will be available for sale before the reading.

The signing will be tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Big Table Books in downtown Ames. The event is free and open to the public.