What Are the Best CW Diaries You Have Found That Are Available Online?

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Reading CW era diaries is a weakness of mine. Memoirs contain a lot of what the writers learned or may have heard in retrospect, but nothing beats reading someone's in the moment candid observations about their first experience in battle or experiences in camp. There are plenty of obscure diaries that have been donated to various universities and organizations that are now digitally available. Does anyone have a recommendation they would share, either a source or a particular diary itself?

 

[Salterr]

Reading CW era diaries is a weakness of mine. Memoirs contain a lot of what the writers learned or may have heard in retrospect, but nothing beats reading someone's in the moment candid observations about their first experience in battle or experiences in camp. There are plenty of obscure diaries that have been donated to various universities and organizations that are now digitally available. Does anyone have a recommendation they would share, either a source or a particular diary itself?

I can't speak on journals but I have some letters you're welcome to read through if I can upload them. Just a handful and no battle content but a few letters make for an interesting study. Some mention stealing from a quartermaster or an officer being killed by a cross dressing person. One letter is from Libby prison, the rest I can't remember.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I can't speak on journals but I have some letters you're welcome to read through if I can upload them. Just a handful and no battle content but a few letter make for interesting study. Some mention stealing from a quartermaster or an officer being killed by a cross dressing person. One letter is from Libby prison, the rest I can't remember.

That would be beyond awesome if it works out. Thank you for offering to share!

 

[delta rifles]

Auburn's database was one that I visited frequently while researching my thesis in graduate school. I didn't use it much because of the scope of my topic, but it was a great opportunity to get lost in the time period. This collection has 39 diaries photographed for viewing.

Civil War Diaries and Letters Collections - The Auburn University Digital Library

Civil War Diaries Collection of the Auburn University Digital Library.

diglib.auburn.edu

Here are a few databases that I did use:

Search results | Louisiana Digital Library

louisianadigitallibrary.org

Index | Bentley Historical Library Civil War Collections Online | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections

https://www.masshist.org/online/civilwar/

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Auburn's database was one that I visited frequently while researching my thesis in graduate school. I didn't use it much because of the scope of my topic, but it was a great opportunity to get lost in the time period. This collection has 39 diaries photographed for viewing.

Civil War Diaries and Letters Collections - The Auburn University Digital Library

Civil War Diaries Collection of the Auburn University Digital Library.

diglib.auburn.edu

Here are a few databases that I did use:

Search results | Louisiana Digital Library

louisianadigitallibrary.org

Index | Bentley Historical Library Civil War Collections Online | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections

https://www.masshist.org/online/civilwar/

Thanks!

 

[Drew]

William Titus Rigby was an Iowa officer in the Western Theatre who kept extensive diaries his family donated to the University of Iowa.

He was in the Red River Campaign, of interest to me and involved in others. His diaries can be found here:

Civil War Diaries and Letters | The University of Iowa Libraries

digital.lib.uiowa.edu

Note also he was the first Resident Commissioner of the Vicksburg National Military Park decades after the war and was lauded for his outreach to both Union and Confederate Veterans, ensuring the park got laid out accurately. He and his wife decided they would both be interred at Vicksburg, rather than be shipped home to Iowa when their time came.

 

[USS ALASKA]

The Civil War Diary of John A. Blair

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=hist_etds

Two Southern Women Writers: the Civil War Journals of Emily Jane Liles Harris and Mary Boykin Chesnut

https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=graduatetheses

A diary kept on the battlefield in the year of 1863 John A. Holtzman

https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1513&context=honors-theses

What Sorrows and What Joys: The Civil War Diaries of Cloe Tyler Whittle, 1861-1866

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5401&context=etd

Waiting for Orders: The Civil War Diary of Micajah A. Thomas

https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=honors_theses

The Journal of Elizabeth Maxwell Alsop Wynne, 1862-1878

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1573&context=etd

HTHs,
USS ALASKA

 

[Tom Elmore]

Many diaries that I once accessed online are no longer available, at least where I first found them, but these two links still work:

http://libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/Civil_War_Diary_of_Captain_NS_Baker.pdf (86th New York)

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/betts/betts.html (Chaplain Betts, 4th North Carolina)

 

[Pvt. Mac]

Ten Years in the Ranks, By Augustus Meyers Sergeant, 2nd U.S. Infantry

This link is from Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45949/45949-h/45949-h.htm

Open Library link
https://openlibrary.org/search?q=ten+years+in+the+ranks&mode=everything

 

[CowCavalry]

William Titus Rigby was an Iowa officer in the Western Theatre who kept extensive diaries his family donated to the University of Iowa.

He was in the Red River Campaign, of interest to me and involved in others. His diaries can be found here:

Civil War Diaries and Letters | The University of Iowa Libraries

digital.lib.uiowa.edu

Note also he was the first Resident Commissioner of the Vicksburg National Military Park decades after the war and was lauded for his outreach to both Union and Confederate Veterans, ensuring the park got laid out accurately. He and his wife decided they would both be interred at Vicksburg, rather than be shipped home to Iowa when their time came.

On a side note regarding Rigby, this thread contains a letter, written at Rigby's request, by my GG Grandfather, regarding position at Vicksburg:

Needham Luke Ball 2nd Lt Co I 38th MS | Researching Civil War Records & Ancestry

This is my GG Grandfather, Needham Luke Ball, who along with several brothers, served. I recently found a document online related to his service and a "Special Requistion" for some clothing articles. Can anyone shed any light on why it would be "Special" or anything else related to him for that...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

@Drew @USS ALASKA @Tom Elmore @Pvt. Mac @CowCavalry
Heartfelt thanks to each of you! I feel like I've found a gold mine that will entertain me for quite some time.

I find that some really good diaries I once read online are now gone too - not sure what is going on with that, but maybe it has something to do with claiming copyrights?

 

[rosefiend]

I can't speak on journals but I have some letters you're welcome to read through if I can upload them. Just a handful and no battle content but a few letters make for an interesting study. Some mention stealing from a quartermaster or an officer being killed by a cross dressing person. One letter is from Libby prison, the rest I can't remember.

Could you upload the officer being killed by a cross-dressing person? I'd really like to see that one. Do you have a scanner handy?

 

[DorwinBlack]

Asa Sackman (44th OVI) Diaries: https://digitallibrary.sdsu.edu/islandora/object/sdsu:AsaSackmanDiaries

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Reading CW era diaries is a weakness of mine. Memoirs contain a lot of what the writers learned or may have heard in retrospect, but nothing beats reading someone's in the moment candid observations about their first experience in battle or experiences in camp. There are plenty of obscure diaries that have been donated to various universities and organizations that are now digitally available. Does anyone have a recommendation they would share, either a source or a particular diary itself?

L. Leon (Louis) Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Could you upload the officer being killed by a cross-dressing person? I'd really like to see that one. Do you have a scanner handy?

It would be interesting to get the details. Men dressed as women (Jeff Davis trying to elude capture or Lincoln sneaking through Baltimore) was a favorite theme in the media of the day, both in novels and newspapers. Have read of POWs making their escape by donning a dress and heavy veil. Also, of course, there were women dressed as men (wives or sweethearts following a man into service). A man dressed as a woman though, could avoid in some cases the more rigorous searches or questioning that would be given to a man.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

It would be interesting to get the details. Men dressed as women (Jeff Davis trying to elude capture or Lincoln sneaking through Baltimore) was a favorite theme in the media of the day, both in novels and newspapers. Have read of POWs making their escape by donning a dress and heavy veil. Also, of course, there were women dressed as men (wives or sweethearts following a man into service). A man dressed as a woman though, could avoid in some cases the more rigorous searches or questioning that would be given to a man.

Keith and Malinda Blalock Union Partisans or Yankee Bushwhackers ???? | Researching Civil War Records & Ancestry

No, this notorious man and wife duo are not my ancestors but they may have tormented the devil out of some of my Rebel kin in the mountains of Western NC. and hailed as heroes by some of my " home-grown yanks " across the Blue Ridge in East Tennessee. A great read about them is " Rebels in Blue...

civilwartalk.com

 

[FarawayFriend]

I found this one quite impressive and touching:
Gettysburg or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle. A True Narrative.
By Mrs. Matilda "Tillie" Pierce Alleman, 1848-1914.New York: W. Lake Borland, 1889

At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.

 

[LSBusch]

I love diaries, too. My favorite Civil War diary is, of course, my gg-grandfather's. He was in a replacement company of the 14th Iowa and kept a diary from June to September 1863 in camp at Fort Halleck, Kentucky. I donated the diary and my transcription of it to the Iowa State Historical Society, but I don't see it on their site in a quick search. I also published the diary and my research on the 14th Iowa's activities in 1864.

Amazon.com: Not Till Then Can the World Know: Replacement Companies of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry in the Trans-Mississippi eBook : Busch, L. Spencer, Spawr, Valentine L.: Kindle Store

Not Till Then Can the World Know: Replacement Companies of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry in the Trans-Mississippi - Kindle edition by Busch, L. Spencer, Spawr, Valentine L.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and...

www.amazon.com

 

[gjpratt]

Our own @CWdiaryPA has transcribed his great great grandfather's wonderful diary of his experience in the Shenandoah Valley during Jackson's Valley Campaign. Daily from March 1 through July 5, 1862.

https://jacksonsvalleycampaign.com/

 

[A. Roy]

Wonderful resources here -- very useful! This makes me think that a great resource would be an online portal with a database of primary sources indexed by military unit -- company, regiment, brigade. That would allow a researcher to find primary sources from persons who were present at any date or location during the war. It wouldn't surprise me if someone had already attempted to do this.
ARB