Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 17, 1863

Ice on the ponds in Helena is barely sufficient to beare up a man & some are sliding & occasionally one breaks in & gets wet, some to the waste & there is a good time of the lookers on to chear, by noon it was thawing so that none went on it afternoon I received two letters bearing me the sad noose of the deep affliction of my Dear son Amandus he has been sick for several weeks & now inflamation of the brain & the letter states the Doctors say he only has one chance out of eleven to recover, Oh how my hart is smitten. Oh that God would spare my precious boy & grant us all the privilege of again enjoying our family alter together.

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 105

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 21, 1863

Streets almost impassible for footmen. I called in a verry pretty residence surrounded with beautifull shrubery & had a social chat with two young ladys by the name of Head they have a brother in the Rebble army. I received a letter from Emma with encouraging information about my son Amandus, he is seeking the Saviour & is in a fare way to be up soon, though I have been much depressed in mind I feel greatly relieved & am hoping & praying for my son I answered the letter. A fleet passed down from Memphis with parts of Grants Armey the 15th & 16th Reg Iowa Vol was on board & the fiew minutes they layed here I improved & injoyed with the boys some from Keosauqua & vicinity

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 106

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 26, 1863

Raining almost incessantly we ware all ready & packed up, & expected to be ordered in line to march down to the boats at early dawn, the teams ware buisey moving down Com[missary] Long['s] store & about noon they ware stopped & a short time after, the orders we had received to march with our brigade was countermanded & fortunately for us we are this rainey night comfortable in our cabbans I received a letter dated 12th from my Daughter & I bless the Lord, my son is some better & I feel more at ease in my mind

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 106

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 31, 1863

I was on drill in bayonet exersize but I feel feeble with great indifference about moving around I recd a letter from my Daughter dated 19th & 22nd It greatly relieves my mind, my son is better, but was not able to turn or help himself & had been verry low for nine weeks, & while I know the Lord will do wright & I feel like trusting him, having dedicated my children to him by baptism in infancy, & trust I now have everything upon the alter, but my mind is some way so ocupied about my children that I cannot rest, & fear unless I can in some way more fully trust the Lord with the care & protection of them my body will sink & I become prostrated. Oh that the precious Saviour would help me. I was at Genl Clinton B Fisks head Quarters & had a pleasant time with him he sent one of his orders to our Chaplain by me & promised to be with us tomorrow for preaching¹

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¹Clinton B. Fisk of St. Louis, became colonel of the Thirty-third Missouri Infantry September, 1862; brigadier-general in November, 1862; and was breveted major-general in March, 1865. He was soldier, business man, educator, reformer, and philanthropist. Fisk University was named in his honor. In 1888 he was the candidate of the Prohibition party for president of the United States. He died in 1890.

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 107

1st Lieutenant William T. Sherman to John Sherman, April 4, 1845

SMITHVILLE, N.C., April 4, 1845.

My Dear Brother: I am going to return to Charleston to-night by sea, and expect to be turned wrong side out, as the wind is blowing a half gale. I have been to Wilmington in this State to stand by a young friend who exchanged the independence of the bachelor for the charms of Governor Dudley's daughter. We had a brilliant wedding,— dinner-parties and balls for three days, — when I came here to see a friend, and will now go home by the first steamboat that comes along. . . . I expect upon my arrival at Ft. Moultrie to find a letter from mother and yourself, and if I do not — good-by, for devil the word has reached me from Mansfield for four months. Love to all. Smithville is on the Cape Fear River, near the outlet.

Your affectionate brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 27

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, February 11, 1863

JUST at night, as I had finished the above, the Laurel Hill, the boat that brought us from quarantine to Chalmette, tied up in front of camp and down came our tents and on board we went. We came up the river past New Orleans and between that city and Algiers, which is quite a large place on the left hand shore. New Orleans seems a big city, but lies as low as the river. A high dock all along its front is built up with timber and is so high only the upper parts of the buildings show from the river. No streets are seen at all. We also passed a place called Carrolton and very soon after landed at what is said to be Camp Parapet. There are no tents near the river but there are thousands a short distance back. The outskirts of Carrolton come close up on the down river side, while the up river side has a high bank reaching from the river back as far as I can see. Beyond that is an unexplored country (to me), and away in the distance appears to be just such a forest as was in sight back of Camp Chalmette. A good-looking dwelling house and a few small buildings are near by and the ground is tramped bare of all vegetation, as if soldiers had just moved away. We came down the Levee and put up our tents and crawled in, for it was night by that time. We have had some rain and some sunshine, but the weather is warm and altogether I like our present place of abode the best of any we have yet had since we left Camp Millington. Another case of smallpox has developed, but he was hustled to a tent way back of camp and I suppose our arms will have to be pricked again. Mine looks as if a setting hen had picked it now. Miss Kate Douglass, from Amenia Union, came to camp yesterday and Captain Bostwick and several officers have gone to the city with her. Report says the captain and she are to be married to-night. Six months in the service and I have so far been only an expense to Uncle Sam. But I have seen something of the big farm the Rebs hope to rob him of and I hope I may yet do something to put him in full possession of it again. Letters from home, also one from Walter Loucks, who is in the hospital at New Orleans.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, pp. 87-8

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, March 5, 1863

Am very weak yet. A little tires me out. A letter from Herman just a month old. Coon died last night, but we none of us knew it till we saw him carried out.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 89

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, March 11, 1863

The boys say they are ready to march, but don't get any further orders. Letters from home. Have written to father wish I could see him.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 90

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, March 17, 1863

Last night I got a little box from home. That I may never forget a single thing in it I'll put them right down now. On top was a New York Sun, next a dear little letter from Jane. A little package of tea, a bottle of Arnold's Balsam, a pipe, a comb (wish it had been a fine tooth comb), a little hand looking-glass, a spool of thread, a lot of buttons, a good lead pencil, a pair of scissors, a ball of soap, half a paper of pins, a darning needle and a small needle, a steel pen and way down in the bottom a little gold locket which made the tears come. God bless the dear ones at home. How thoughtful and how kind of them to think of so many things, and all useful, too.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 90

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Saturday, December 13, 1862

Near Oxford. All quiet. Foraging party started out at 6 A. M. Gone all day. They report a poor country, with much more loyalty apparently than could be expected. Citizens refuse to take Confederate scrip as heretofore, many exhibiting a white flag on their dwellings upon which was inscribed "Union". Received letters from John from Jefferson, Wis.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, pp. 18-9

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, March 14, 1863

We were expecting a gay time to-day, it being the first anniversary of the capture of New Berne. It was reported that besides a review we were to have various salutes and plenty of beer. We were awakened about five o'clock by a salute, and, although we growled at the early hour, started out to see the fun. We soon found the saluting was done with shotted guns. Belger and Morrison were posted on the river bank, firing as fast as they could. The old "Hunchback," using her 100-pounder, and a little farther down stream, the "Delaware" pegging away at the woods beyond the little fort where the 92d N.Y. Regiment was stationed, they firing also and the river alive with shot and shell from the rebels. We were immediately ordered out in "light marching order," and it looked as if our breakfast as well as our beer would get stale.

Rumors were plenty. About ten o'clock it was reported that we were going across the river to relieve the troops there, but stayed quietly where we were, hearing everything and seeing very little. By four P.M. everything was quiet, and the company returned to barracks. A mail was distributed, and the boys are busy answering letters, for the boat leaves in the morning.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, pp. 41-2

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 1, 1863

I received a letter from my daughter with information that my son Amandus is much better, the fever broke & he is in a fair way to recover, letter dated the 20th Dec 1862. I have a verry severe cold & my lungs are verry sore, but I am on duty as Officer of the Guard. at 9¼ Oc morning our Reg 36th Iowa was ordered of the boats & formed in line by companyes & ware marched to our Campning grounds on the bank of the river at the lower end of the town of Hellena Arkansas. Our camp is between the Levvy & the river there is some 10 or 12 Reg of Cavelry & infantry in & about the place, the bottom is perhaps ¼ of a mile wide with numerous ponds of standing watter & some of them covered with a green scum, the bluff is verry broken, high point of timberland at the foot of the bluff & opposite to us is the residence of the Rebble Genl Hindman

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 102

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 5, 1863

We was out this morning by request of our Col & had a tryal at target shooting with him the commissioned officers of us, pistol shooting. Capt Hale made the best shooting. forenoon we had company drill & at 4 Oc we ware on dress perade. night I continued my letter to my children. I recd a verry interesting letter from Ellis Burch of Ia.

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 103

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, January 8, 1863

We drilled a short time after our scirmish drill & was on dress perade I received a letter from Emma with the good noose that Amandus is better

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 103

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Sunday, February 8, 1863

I wrote off six copies of the work of board of survey. Kunze, of Company H of Eighth Minnesota, was frozen very badly. Was placed in the hospital. He was riding facing the wind, escorting the mail. A letter received from Red Lake warning us to beware of Sioux. William Beatty, (Lock's Mills) buried.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson, Sunday, February 22, 1863

I let Lieut. Buck have $2 to buy me a water filter and pair of goggles. I sent letters to Sarah and Moses.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 12

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, January 3, 1863

Two more men died last night, but not from Company B. We sent off another mail to-day. I wish we might get some letters. We ought to have a lot of them when they do come.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 79

Diary of 5th Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, January 17, 1863

On account of my cough, which is worse when I lie down, I have walked about evenings or sat and chatted with others about the camp fire until tired enough to sleep, and last night crawled in near midnight where my two bedfellows were asleep. Soon after I got into a drowse from which I was awakened by a coughing spell and saw Walt standing by the help of the tent pole and groaning in agony. Soon I heard him say "I'll end it all right now," and with that he pitched over towards his knapsack and by the noise I thought he was after his revolver. I jumped across Jim, who lay asleep in the middle, and snatched the gun out of his hand before he had it out of the case. Out in the company street I threw the three revolvers and then grabbed for a sheath knife which I knew was there, getting hold of the handle just as he grabbed the sheath. By this time Story was in the game and we both had our hands full getting him down and quiet. I went for Dr. Andrus, who after lighting a candle and looking in Walt's eyes, told us to take him over to the hospital. The struggle had put him in agony and it was pitiful to see how he suffered. We staid with him the rest of the night and by morning he was helpless. Every joint seemed as stiff as if no joint was there. For the next five days I did little but watch him and help in any way I could to make him more comfortable. Then he and others were taken to the general hospital in the city, where they will at least be warm. We have had a cold rain and the camp is a bed of mud. The wind sifts through the cracks in this old shed and although a stove was kept running, it was too cold for comfort. I have slept but little in the last five nights, but the doctor has kept dosing me and I feel better than when this time with Walter began. Letters from home have made the world seem brighter and the men in it better.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 82-3

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells, January 30, 1863

I was detailed on fatigue this morning. The detail from our regiment worked on the big break in the levee. We did a good day's work, and slightly checked the current. The Mississippi continues to rise. Uncle Ben, Scott and Patterson returned from their three days' scout. They had been up the river after beef and had secured fifty head. Mail came in last night, Frank received a letter from Rosalie, dated Jan. 4. Just to think, they have had no snow yet in the north. Generals U. S. Grant and Ross have arrived.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 35

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones: Thursday, November 20, 1862

Moscow. Mail arrived to-day. Received two letters; weather rather cold. Went foraging in the morning; returned with fresh pork, beans, corn and fodder in plenty.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 13