Union Soldier's Diary, 1864-1865

NosUh. Сало to iu State. АлсЬлоел RaZeigh, Hofith Сало Zina P.C JZ30 Collection: Union Soldier’s Diary 1864-1865 Maine Physical Description: Originally bound as a small paper booklet with flush covers measuring 14 x 8.5 cm. that was much damaged by wet-rot and mold, now laminated and bound as a small booklet containing 31 pages and 2 frag¬ ments, and measuring 15.7 x 13 cm. Acquisition: Gift, Mrs. Nancy Brown Baker, Pikeville,. N.C., 1985, in memory of Moses Samuel Brown. Description: This diary of an unidentified private in Company E, 9th Regi- ment Maine Volunteers (Infantry) was preserved in the family of a cousin who, too, served in the same company and regiment, Isaac L. Brown. The surviving portion of the diary is for the period from May 18 to August 7, 1864 (pages 1-22), and February 24 to March 21, 1865 (pages 26-31). There is a single isolated entry dated April 3, 1865, on page 25. May-August, 1864. During this period the 9th Regiment Maine Volunteers was assigned to the 2d Division, 10th Corps, in General Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James (U.S.). Consequently, entries from this section of the diary are concerned with events from the Petersburg Campaign. They begin at the time that Butler's army was bottled up at Bermuda Hundred, Va. , and end with the division's withdrawal from Petersburg following the Battle of the Crater. In the interim, the diarist records information concerning his regiment's participation in the engagements at Ware Bottom Church, Va. (May 20, 1864), the Battle of Cold Harbor (entry of June 1), engagements on the front lines near Petersburg (entries of June 23 and June 30), and the Battle of the Crater (entries of July 30 and 31). The 10th Corps included some regiments of black soldiers; the diarist makes reference to black troops in his entries of June 15 and July 30, 1864. The 1864 entries are substantive and furnish the sort of detail available to a private soldier; frequent notations are made concerning the wounding or death of fellow soldiers in the company. February-March, 1865. Early in January, 1865, the regiment was included in General A. H. Terry's Provisional Corps (N.C.) , organized for the Fort Fisher expedition. This section of the diary includes no information