Manuscripts
John Coyle Civil War diary
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Conway Phelps Wing diary
Manuscripts
The 38-page diary was kept by Conway Wing while pastor at the New School Synod Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1845 to 1848. In his entries, Wing details his ministry to and converting of free and enslaved African Americans, as well as national, state, and local news, including the growing difficulties between the North and South, Texas, and temperance.
mssHM 84475
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Charles Lee Civil War diary
Manuscripts
Diary that Charles Lee kept from January 1 to November 10, 1864. In addition to camp life and multiple vows to lay off whiskey, the diary covers visits to the regiment by Ulysses S. Grant and Joshua Thomas Owen, and gives brief accounts of the battles at Morton's Ford (1864, Feb. 6 - 7), Po River, (May 10, 1864), and the Petersburg campaign, including Jerusalem Plank Road (June 22 - 23), Strawberry Plains (Aug. 14), Ream''s Station (Aug. 25), Weldon Railroad (Aug. 25), and Fort Sedgwick (Oct. 27) and describes Finley hospital which Lee described as "a singular place" with the "Band playing at one End of the Ward outside and the Doctors performing an operation at the other."
mssHM 30476
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Henry Breidenthal Civil War diary
Manuscripts
Breidenthal's diary that covers the month from October 10 to November 12, 1861, when the 3rd Regiment was attached to Reynolds's command at Cheat Mountain, W. Va. Breidethal, being and a devout Christian and possessing of an indomitable if somewhat morose personality, set to out devote his spare time to writing a diary in large part to avoid "the society here" that he found was "not congenial to my tastes." (He dismissed "the general character of our soldiery" as "lowbred" and their aspirations "rising but little above the instinct of the animal creature.") The daily entry contain detailed expositions on his Bible reading, including political implications of the Scripture, (Breidenthal was a passionate abolitionist who counted "our complicity with African Slavery -- a crime of sufficient enormity to sink this great nation" as one of the great sins and regarded "Bible defenders of the American slavery" as "false prophets"); his opinions on the books he was reading (he studiously avoided "trashy novels" and "obscene books," preferring sermons by Henry Ward Beecher, a biography of Cavour, or a "Life of Balaam, by Rev. Hatfield"); political news, including discussion of Fremont's proclamation of Aug. 30, 1861; and camp life, especially entertainment (of which he heartily disapproved, being particularly troubled by the widespread gambling, "not edifying conversation and vulgar songs" as well as dancing and smoking); regimental gossip and jockeying for promotions. He also recounts, in great detail, the inquiry into the death of a soldier killed by a sentinel too scared to give the required challenge.
mssHM 68485-68486
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Wilson Keys diary
Manuscripts
Wilson Keys writes in detail about his troops' movements, and his experience in Johnson Island, Ohio, and the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia. With the diary is a memo book belonging to Milt Kemble of Ohio with scattered entries from 1861 to 1876.
mssHM 29057
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John Meyer diary
Manuscripts
John Meyer's diary for the year 1863 when the 28th Regiment was part of the Department of the Tennessee and, since July 1863, the Department of Gulf. Long, detailed daily entries cover the military campaigns and operations -- Gorman's expedition up the White River (Jan. 13-19); expedition from Helena, Ark. to Yazoo Pass (Feb. 13 - Apr. 5); operations against Fort Pemberton and Greenwood (Mar. 13 - Apr. 5); expedition to St. Francis River (Apr. 5-11); the battles of Port Gibson (May 1); Bayou Pierre (May 2-3); Fourteen-Mile Creek (May 12 -13); Champion Hill (May 17); Big Black River (May 17); siege of Vicksburg, Miss. (May 18 - July 4); the siege of Jackson (Miss)' duty at Carrollton and Brashear City, La. (Aug. 2 - Oct. 3); Western Louisiana Campaign (Oct. 3 - Nov. 3), and duty at New Iberia and New Orleans, La. The diary also discusses the soldiers' health; war and political news; encounters with Union loyalists and African Americans, etc.
mssHM 76194