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]

Unfortunately @rosefiend I don't have a scanner but I can at least take a picture once I pull the letter out and transcribe them if everyone wants or I can leave it to be transcribed. Anybody have a preference?? I've transcribed the Libby prison letter so far. I'll be sure to mention you that way you see when I post that letter you requested.

 

[USS ALASKA]

...or an officer being killed by a cross dressing person.

What!?! Jefferson Davis killed someone while escaping?!?


USS ALASKA

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Unfortunately @rosefiend I don't have a scanner but I can at least take a picture once I pull the letter out and transcribe them if everyone wants or I can leave it to be transcribed. Anybody have a preference?? I've transcribed the Libby prison letter so far. I'll be sure to mention you that way you see when I post that letter you requested.

My vote would be for you to transcribe them!

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

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

That would be a spectacular resource, @A. Roy. I'm just thinking aloud here: If such a portal or database doesn't already exist, how difficult would it be for the members here at CWT to begin compiling primary sources within a dedicated forum? While it would lack the ease of searching that an indexed database would provide, it could conceivably be organized by assigning a specific thread for each regiment as entries are made, and members could add links to sources as individual posts in the appropriate threads. It would be searchable using CWT's forum search function, which should make it easy to find names of regiments and soldiers. I'm probably oversimplifying the structure of such a forum, but what I have in mind is something like this:

Forum Name – "Military Primary Sources"
Thread title/format – (Tag: Military Unit* ) / Regiment / Brigade / Company (where applicable)
Examples of Post format – Diary: Soldier Name / company / brief description of contents, such as "service from 1861-1863"
Letter(s): Soldier Name / company / time period covered
Regimental History: Author / year published

Does this idea make sense, @CivilWarTalk ? If so, what do the librarians and archivists within the membership think? @FarawayFriend? @Library Lady?

*@A. Roy , by "military unit," do you mean by army, as in Army of the Potomac? Or function, as in infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy?

 

[Drew]

It would be interesting to get the details. Men dressed as women (Jeff Davis trying to elude capture or Lincoln sneaking through Baltimore)

These are total Myths of the War Between the States. I've never heard anything about Lincoln wearing a dress in Baltimore and I've been to Jefferson Davis' post-war home in Mobile, Alabama.

There is a museum attached to the latter that contains what Davis was wearing when he was caught. It's essentially a large coat with insignia on it.

There's a difference between a raincoat and a woman's dress, if the moderators will allow it.

What a bunch of nonsense.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

These are total Myths of the War Between the States. I've never heard anything about Lincoln wearing a dress in Baltimore and I've been to Jefferson Davis' post-war home in Mobile, Alabama.

There is a museum attached to the latter that contains what Davis was wearing when he was caught. It's essentially a large coat with insignia on it.

There's a difference between a raincoat and a woman's dress, if the moderators will allow it.

What a bunch of nonsense.

Yep. Yet another smear against both men by the folks that didn't like them. The political cartoonists had fun with it of course, and maybe it sold some extra newspapers.

 

[A. Roy]

*@A. Roy , by "military unit," do you mean by army, as in Army of the Potomac? Or function, as in infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy?

Not sure exactly how such a thing would be sliced and diced. In my head I was imagining researching a particular battle or engagement and then using the portal to search for first-hand accounts from soldiers or sailors who were there.

Doing something like that at CWT is an idea to consider. However, this is the kind of application that might be best developed as part of a process of product design, and the forum structure here might not turn out to be the best format from a user experience perspective. Or it might turn out to be a pretty good format -- who knows. There are people out there who are very good at identifying functional requirements and user needs, then walking through a product design process to come up with something workable. That would require design and development resources. I would think such a project might be undertaken at an educational institution where they know how to create proposals and get grant funding.

Just thinking "out loud" here.

ARB

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

Not sure exactly how such a thing would be sliced and diced. In my head I was imagining researching a particular battle or engagement and then using the portal to search for first-hand accounts from soldiers or sailors who were there.

Doing something like that at CWT is an idea to consider. However, this is the kind of application that might be best developed as part of a process of product design, and the forum structure here might not turn out to be the best format from a user experience perspective. Or it might turn out to be a pretty good format -- who knows. There are people out there who are very good at identifying functional requirements and user needs, then walking through a product design process to come up with something workable. That would require design and development resources. I would think such a project might be undertaken at an educational institution where they know how to create proposals and get grant funding.

Just thinking "out loud" here.

ARB

I don't think it would slice and dice well, not even as well as a basic Access database, but it might be a simple way of organizing a disparate but similar group of links in a dedicated space. The project you suggest would be ideal and definitely would need the expertise of an educational institution with both kinds of development resources you've mentioned -- in project design and funding. As a proud Gettysburgian who now wishes I could go back to the College and study history, of course I'd picture Gettysburg's Civil War Institute as the institution to create it. But maybe what you've described already does exist, and if so, the CWI faculty probably would know. Maybe someone among the membership here has contacts at the CWI and could ask if they're aware of such a resource.

 

[FarawayFriend]

That would be a spectacular resource, @A. Roy. I'm just thinking aloud here: If such a portal or database doesn't already exist, how difficult would it be for the members here at CWT to begin compiling primary sources within a dedicated forum? While it would lack the ease of searching that an indexed database would provide, it could conceivably be organized by assigning a specific thread for each regiment as entries are made, and members could add links to sources as individual posts in the appropriate threads. It would be searchable using CWT's forum search function, which should make it easy to find names of regiments and soldiers. I'm probably oversimplifying the structure of such a forum, but what I have in mind is something like this:

Forum Name – "Military Primary Sources"
Thread title/format – (Tag: Military Unit* ) / Regiment / Brigade / Company (where applicable)
Examples of Post format – Diary: Soldier Name / company / brief description of contents, such as "service from 1861-1863"
Letter(s): Soldier Name / company / time period covered
Regimental History: Author / year published

Does this idea make sense, @CivilWarTalk ? If so, what do the librarians and archivists within the membership think? @FarawayFriend? @Library Lady?

*@A. Roy , by "military unit," do you mean by army, as in Army of the Potomac? Or function, as in infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy?

I had suggested something like that to the Head Shed here already years ago, when we started to collect internet links. Back then I had even volunteered to be the host - but for some reason I have meanwhile forgotten the reaction was reluctant and eventually the idea of a virtual library as part of the forums was abandoned. As librarian I'm all for starting such a virtual library, but meanwhile I couldn't do more for it than contribute some links. But I do still support the idea and wish you every success possible for being heard and establishing such a link collection!

 

[Library Lady]

The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries searchable database by Alexander Street (a division of Clarivate) is the closest thing to what you describe that I've found. It is designed for libraries and, I would guess, costs a fortune because these electronic resources just do. It has between 300 and 400 entries. My library does not have access to this and, in all honesty, I doubt that it ever will. Maybe someone else here has experience with it.

Here is a general description of what it is and what it can do.

The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries

Perhaps the most exciting descriptions of events during the Civil War are to be found in first person accounts. Detailed firsthand descriptions of historical characters, glimpses of daily life in the army, anecdotes about key events and personages, and tales of sufferings at home, written for...

alexanderstreet.com

If you click on "Bibliography" (the open book icon right above the blue box for the free trial), it will return an Excel spreadsheet listing what all is included in this database.

Here is another link where you can play with the database a bit to get more of an idea of what's inside. You will not be able to see full documents, however, unless your library has access.

Civil War Letters and Diaries | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate

Search streaming video, audio, and text content for academic, public, and K-12 institutions. Alexander Street is an imprint of ProQuest that promotes teaching, research, and learning across music, counseling, history, anthropology, drama, film, and more.

search.alexanderstreet.com

To do what you want to do is extremely labor intensive. You have to find the resources and get permissions. You have to continually update as more resources become available. There's all the coding to do to make the database itself, to make it searchable, to get it on line, to update it, to keep it functioning and probably a bunch of other stuff where I don't even have a clue. Again, to be honest, this is part of why electronic resources are so expensive for libraries.

 

[Okie]

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?

VMI has a lot of good stuff. Here's a sample:
MS0393_18631025_page001 - Letters, Diaries, and Manuscripts - VMI Archives Digital Collections

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Lots of good places to look- thank you!

Can anyone recommend any of the diaries shown in this search on archives.org? (Click link)

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

 

[USS ALASKA]

Might take a couple of decades to go through...

Search results for Civil War Diary, Available Online

Search results 1 - 25 of 248067.

www.loc.gov

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[east_beast]

 

[riruhane]

The diary of Gould D. Mollineaux 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Day to day life, train rides home, sickness and medicines that were as bad as the ailment, battles of Ft Donelson, Shiloh. Scan of the original; four volumes.

Civil War diary of Gould D. Molineaux, volume 1 | Special Collections Manuscript Collections | Home

augustana.libraryhost.com

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Might take a couple of decades to go through...

Search results for Civil War Diary, Available Online

Search results 1 - 25 of 248067.

www.loc.gov

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

Honestly didn't know the LOC even had diaries - I've never thought to look there. Thanks for the link.

 

[Salterr]

@Reconstructed Rebel and @rosefiend I've finally transcribed the requested letter to the best of my ability. There are a few words I can't make out but once I post the picture maybe someone can fill the gaps. I've modernized the spelling the best I could. There are multiple letters from the same man addressed to his sister that I have if you want. He spells his name differently on the other letters but I think we might be able to identify him.

Corinth Mis July 4
Dear sister, I received your letter some three weeks ago but have not had time to answer it as we have been moving and it has kept me going all the time. From this on I will be prompt. We are fixed nice, we are about 2 miles from town, a country life, it does not appear like soldiering. The sick and nurses stay in tents none but the ____(as the sick call us) stay in the house. I have a room to myself as nice as home, have clean bed, cloth table, your likeness on it. A N***** to black my boots, make my bed, sweep my fooor and a pretty white woman in the room next to me. I sometimes almost forget that I am a soldier but it is soon brought to mind. They have kept up a continuous roar of cannons all day but that is the way I like to hear them. When they don't mean anything but to make a noise. _____ got a letter from the 11th last night they had no one hurt in the last fights of company ___ (F?) and it appears that company I 25th has no men in it that were born to be killed. 9 fights and not a man killed yet. I think that providing must have smiled on them or they do not go near enough to the rebs to get shot.(perhaps they have good guns) I wish we could have that good luck. I expect that some of them are getting home sick and would like to get home to see their little ones(I know I would if I had any) but the poor boys will let them alone in their glory. I will stop until after dinner as the bell is ringing ( a regular hotel ain't it) afternoon had a pretty good dinner and feel good generally (my oh but it is hot) the sweat just rolls down I have a notion to wave until it gets cooler but that will be too late. You must be proud of your schoolhouse for the reason that it is so much like home. At home we could see all the funerals and there you can see all the people (it must be nice). The officers of our brigade are having a big picnic today out at the widower _____(not old grannies) the privates are making as much noise as they can and having as much fun as the law allows. They have got to living like white folks now. They have built nice house 5 to a company they look nice. The poorest house in the company is the colonel's and it is a better house than half the dwelling houses in the south. The news has just come in that one of our officers at the picnic has been killed. He was killed by a man dressed in women's clothes. He was out walking ahead of the rest and met the man. He belonged to the 39th Iowa company H. Better him then a private because it will give room for promotion, where if it had been a private there would not have been any chance. From present appearings there will be a chance for promotion in our company for our first lieutenant is about to die. His name is (D M Williams)? He has got the consumption and can not live long but there is no chance for me. I did not come from Washington and do not belong to the church and therefore will have to stand back. Captain ( N G Hanal)? Is not the man that sergeant (N G Hanal)? was. A poor fellow he met with a _____ his wife died in camp on the 1st of July. She was laid besides the soldiers she was sick but a short time. I never spoke to her but once all the time she was here and then she asked me a _____. She appeared to be a fine woman I suppose you know her she went to school in Washington when you did. That will do won't it
H C Russell

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I've finally transcribed the requested letter to the best of my ability. There are a few words I can't make out but once I post the picture maybe someone can fill the gaps. I've modernized the spelling the best I could. There are multiple letters from the same man addressed to his sister that I have if you want. He spells his name differently on the other letters but I think we might be able to identify him.

This presents quite a few mysteries. Odd that a man would spell his own name differently. Perhaps he needed a friend to write his letters for him?

 

[Salterr]

This presents quite a few mysteries. Odd that a man would spell his own name differently. Perhaps he needed a friend to write his letters for him?

I did think, looking over the other letters that the handwriting was slightly different even though they're addressed to the same woman and signed by him. One letter is from a hospital he was in. The other mentions not being paid and having to steal from the commissary. I have the envelopes where he addresses his sister. This letter seems to be all over the place and written over the course of the day, not all at once. From his wording he seems to be in the 39th Iowa but I can't find him anywhere or the officers he mentions. It might be possible to match up my blanks with the letter and figure it out but I've stared at this letter for hours trying to figure them out. He got really hasty with his writing in the end and it seems to get sloppier when he was running out of space.

 

[Lubliner]

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?

I may be way off on a drift with this, but I have one instance found recorded of a cross-dresser that helped capture the USS St. Nicholas on June 28, 1861. I will leave two links and a brief excerpt from the latter one for your perusal.

Confederate Pirates: Capture of Steamer St. Nicholas

On June 28, 1861, the Union’s first charge of Confederate piracy since the Civil War erupted took place in the Potomac River when the passenger steamer St. Nicholas was captured. Captain George Hollins developed a daring scheme to capture the ship. Using the flamboyant Lt. Colonel Richard Thomas...

www.marinersmuseum.org

Snatching the St. Nicholas

An ambitious operation led by Captain George N. Hollins failed to capture the USS Pawnee but nevertheless resulted in one of the Confederate Navy’s first victories.

www.usni.org

excerpt; "On 28 June, Thomas boarded the St. Nicholas in Baltimore—disguised as a French lady, with a veil discreetly covering his eyes and upper cheeks. "Madame La Force" was most anxious that her several large trunks be quickly sent to her stateroom on the 1,200-ton vessel. Once the trunks were safely stowed, Thomas played his role to the hilt. According to one of his men, George H. Alexander, he was speaking French fluently and "tossing a fan about and putting on all the airs of an animated French woman, much to the enjoyment of the Federal officer with whom he was conversing."

Lubiner.