He’s a man who had an interest, explored it, expanded it and now that interest has become a full-fledged career.

Andrew Carroll’s interest was in reading letters written home by solders. He was fascinated by how much hidden history was detailed in the correspondence from soldiers dating back to the Civil War up to the present day.

But what shocked him was how many of these letters were just thrown away. Carroll set out to show that they are valuable historical documents and created a platform where people could preserve them. It’s called The Legacy Project. Once word got out, it spread quickly, and he has become the world’s foremost authority on America’s conflicts from our individual soldiers’ points of view.

He was part of a widely distributed PBS documentary and he created the Web site WarLetters.com. He was anxious to talk to Growing Bolder about his latest project and why he believes it may be his most fascinating to date.