Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, June 22, 1865

The Eleventh Iowa received eight months' pay, besides $100.00 of bounty money. I received $243.45, $34.00 of it being clothing money.¹ I expressed $105.00 home, John D. Moore sending some with mine. The boys of Company E settled for their year's clothing. The furloughed men started for their homes this evening.

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¹ When a soldier did not draw all the clothing the Government allowed him, he was allowed the money instead. Sergeants were allowed more than privates, receiving $20 per month. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 284

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: April 15, 1863

. . . Today made two petticoats (for E. and self) out of a window curtain. “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Cut a pair of drawers for Mr. P. out of a sheet; not because I could well spare the sheet, but because I had nothing else; unbleached cotton not to be had, or if obtainable, $2 per yard.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 162

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, July 6, 1863

We have had very changeable weather for a week now — hot and sultry, then cool and pleasant, then warm and hazy. The Eleventh Iowa received two months’ pay today. I got $37.25; of this, $11.25 was allowed for clothing not drawn. The Thirteenth Iowa and the Tenth Ohio Battery went out on picket duty.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 127

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, June 10, 1862

It is dry and hot. I wrote a letter to father enclosing $50.00 of the $53.00 which I received from the Government on May 31st, and in greenbacks at that. I had $1.86 coming to me over and above the allowance the Government makes for clothing, which is $40.00 a year.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 53