The Peninsula Seven Days Battle--First Hand Accounts?

MaryDee

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Dec 23, 2014
My son#1, the reenactor, is trying to find good Union first-hand accounts of the Seven Days. He was led to two diaries/memoirs. The first, Col. Charles S. Wainwright's Diary of Battle (ed. Allan Nevins), was a bust--Wainwright became ill during Seven Pines and was sent home on sick leave for two months. The second, Gen. Orlando B. Willcox' Forgotten Valor (ed. Robert Garth Scott) was also a bust because Wilcox was still "touring southern prisons" after being captured at First Bull Run. Both are interesting reading (I've read one and started the other), but neither was present for the Seven Days.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good first-hand account (preferably Union) of the Seven Days?

Thanks!
 
My son#1, the reenactor, is trying to find good Union first-hand accounts of the Seven Days. He was led to two diaries/memoirs. The first, Col. Charles S. Wainwright's Diary of Battle (ed. Allan Nevins), was a bust--Wainwright became ill during Seven Pines and was sent home on sick leave for two months. The second, Gen. Orlando B. Willcox' Forgotten Valor (ed. Robert Garth Scott) was also a bust because Wilcox was still "touring southern prisons" after being captured at First Bull Run. Both are interesting reading (I've read one and started the other), but neither was present for the Seven Days.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good first-hand account (preferably Union) of the Seven Days?

Thanks!


All for the Union: The Civil War Diary & Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes may be of some help.


Respectfully,
William
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Our Boys: The Personal Experiences of a Soldier in the Army of the Potomac by A. F. Hill: https://archive.org/stream/ourboyspersonale01hill#page/n9/mode/2up

He served in the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves which saw a lot of action in the Seven Days. Was also authored and published during the war.

Time Life's Voices of the Civil War: Seven Days is also a good compilation of first hand accounts.
 
Maybe tell him to try Hathitrust? There's an unbelievable amount of published Civil War memoirs there- never heard of he majority! You can narrow the search by decade-1860-1869, 1870-1879, etc. Bumped into it accidentally while looking for something on Libby Prison- since a lot of men passed through here, those journals scored a hit in the search.

You just know out of so many, quite a few will contain what your son is looking for.
 
National Park Service may be a good source for this.

Visiting Richmond last year, I got into a discussion with one of the volunteer rangers at the front desk. He whips out a loose-life binder with type-written copies of contemporary letters written by the soldiers who fought at Seven Days. He was kind enough to e-mail me some of the letters the next day.
 
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