Civil War Yankee soldier's pocket diary taken by Confederate soldier while a pow

Description: This Civil War period diary for the year of 1864 was published with information tables similar to an almanac. The entries by the young married Union officer begin on the page dated Friday, January 1st, 1864 and continue until shortly after he is captured by Confederate Forces on Wednesday, April 20, 1864. In the beginning, the blue-coated soldier's entries mention his work, commissary supplies in uniforms and food being stored, evening dances attended, church meetings, and letters to his wife. On the 2nd of January, he mentions dispatching the packet ship Bombshell to Washington, North Carolina, for repairs. (The USS Bombshell was sunk shortly afterward and raised by Confederate Forces and used for several months.). The entries continue uninterrupted with comments about the evenings following work including a Taffy Pull in February and commissary operations. North Carolina towns like Tarboro, Goldsboro, Plymouth, Washington, and Wilmington are mentioned. Various weather conditions are mentioned occasionally. Come March, the entries begin to change with mention of a possible enemy attack on Thursday 3rd and concerns among the workers of a movement of the Confederate Army toward their position on Thursday March 24. Tuesday, April 19th, mention is made of the Confederate Ironclad Ram Albemarle arriving off Plymouth and engaging the USS Southfield resulting in the Union ship's sinking. (The Confederacy removed the large cannons from the wreck of the Southfield later and utilized them elsewhere. (One of the cannon, a 9" Dahlgren, was placed aboard the CSS Pee Dee. This gun was recovered 150 years later by the CSS Pee Dee Research Team and the South Carolina Department of Archives and Natural History and is on display now at the Veterans Center of the Florence National Cemetery.) The diary entries continue with the building of bombproofs for use against the expected Confederate attacks and the collapse of the Union forces along the Plymouth and Pamplico Rivers and Albemarle Sound. The next day's diary entry of Wednesday, April 20th details the capture of this Yankee officer, his immediate imprisonment at the Commissary center, and then the beginning of the march of the captured Yankees to the railhead and their movements to Charleston for imprisonment later at Andersonville. Further entries detail the diets afforded the prisoners such as bacon for the officers and cornmeal and beans for the enlisted men. Details of the prisoner's march including times, weather, and diet are given. On April 24th, the diarist writes that Holcolm's Legion (Holcolmbe's Legion) of South Carolina assumed responsibility for the POWs and marched them to the bank of the Tar River where the Yankee officers were separated from the other troops and placed in cattle cars for the journey to Wilmington, N.C. The diary's front page bears a penciled inscription that James H. McFarland, Company A, 17 South Carolina Volunteers, confiscated the diary at Wilmington, North Carolina, on May 11, 1864. There is a postscript on that page "PS. This book was taken from a Yankee prisoner while on the way from Goldsboro North Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina. The diary is intact and the pages are in order. There is some tattering but for the majority of the diary, the longhand written entries are legible even though pencil written. The amount of substantive history is astounding and makes for enjoyable research. This is a true wartime treasure that records serious events in the war efforts of both combatant nations in a somewhat remote area of the war. The reader can relive the experience of the two soldiers from opposing sides during these local engagements that are recounted in this original non-published work. Formerly in the collection of the South Carolina Civil War Museum, the diary is well preserved in its originality.

Price: 8000 USD

Location: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

End Time: 2024-05-11T22:00:21.000Z

Shipping Cost: 15 USD