War Diaries (May 9) (nonfiction): Difference between revisions

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[[File:Captain_Edward_Hill.jpg|thumb|Captain Edward Hill.]][[War Diaries (nonfiction)|War Diary]] excerpts for [[May 9]].
[[File:Captain_Edward_Hill.jpg|thumb|Captain Edward Hill.]][[War Diaries (nonfiction)|War Diary]] entries for [[May 9]].


<small>Previous: [[War Diaries (May 8) (nonfiction)|May 8]] - Next: [[War Diaries (May 10) (nonfiction)|May 10]]</small>
<small>Previous: [[War Diaries (May 8) (nonfiction)|May 8]] - Next: [[War Diaries (May 10) (nonfiction)|May 10]]</small>
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The diary of Captain Edward Hill conveys the pleasures, hardships, and heroism of a Union soldier who served in the Civil War's climactic showdown in Virginia between the armies of General Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee. Hill and his regiment, the 16th Michigan Infantry, took part in many of the Army of the Potomac's key battles, and in later life Hill wrote about the Battle of Fredericksburg. Information about his daily wartime activities, however, is only available from February 16, 1864 to July 27, 1864 through jottings in his diary.
—Captain [[Edward Hill (nonfiction)|Edward Hill]], 16th Michigan Infantry (diary)


* [https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/civil-war-diary-of-captain-edward-hill/diary-entries/transcription-of-the-diary-of-edward-hill-may-9 Transcription of the Diary of Edward Hill, May 9, 1864 - May 14, 1864]  
* [https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/civil-war-diary-of-captain-edward-hill/diary-entries/transcription-of-the-diary-of-edward-hill-may-9 Transcription of the Diary of Edward Hill, May 9, 1864 - May 14, 1864]  
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[[William P. Chambers (nonfiction)|William Pitt Chambers]], son of John and Mercer Welch Chambers, was born in Covington County, Mississippi, on December 14, 1839. Prior to the Civil War, he was a school teacher. On March 26, 1862, Chambers left his home as a member of the "Covington Rebels," a company of infantry under the command of T.D. Magee. He was part of the 6th Mississippi Infantry (Balfour's Battalion) in April 1862 but after October 1862 became Company "B," 46th Mississippi Infantry.
—[[William P. Chambers (nonfiction)|William Pitt Chambers]], Company "B," 46th Mississippi Infantry (diary)


The diary itself is preceded by a preface written by Ruth Polk, presumably the editor of the diary, and a brief biographical sketch of William Pitt Chambers. Chambers himself wrote an introduction reviewing the military units in which he had served and a preface in which he explained that at the surrender of the Confederate armies in 1865, he had several hundred pages of notes written daily during his military service. In 1891 he revised these original notes to form the existing personal narrative which he entitled "My Journal."
* [https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m214.html Chambers (William Pitt) Diary] @ lib.usm.edu
 
=== Henry Cushing: May 9, 1915 ===
 
<blockquote>
The ''St. Paul'', once a cruiser herself in the Spanish War, has been hitting it up very fast, so that we are off the Old Head Kinsale an hour earlier than the passengers expected. It is a bright sunny day with just a little sea, and we have passed a destroyer or two, but nothing else.
 
Most of the passengers were at morning service and I was writing here when Boothby looked in and said I had better come on the forward deck. This I did, but rather wish I had not. We were going through the ''Lusitania'' wreckage---had been, indeed, for the past half hour. Steamer chairs, oars, boxes, overturned boats---and bodies. As I came out we passed quite near a collapsible boat which was bottom side up, with the body of a woman and a child floating alongside; they must have been tied to it in some way, else with the easterly wind the boat would have drifted, from them.
 
All told, I believe some fifteen bodies were counted, and this was only in our immediate lane; the wreckage must have been strewn for some twenty miles or more---we at least were passing through it for considerably over an hour. Once we veered off to get a nearer view of the only boat which was seen to be right side up; but the officers, all of whom were on the bridge scrutinizing everything with their glasses, appeared satisfied and we went back on our course.
 
That was about all. No, there was something else: a single little trawler a long way off on our port quarter, evidently patrolling for corpses---at a guinea each---on this sunny Sabbath morning.
</blockquote>
 
—[[Henry Cushing (nonfiction)|Henry Cushing]] (diary)
 
* http://www.vlib.us/medical/Cushing/journal03.html#ch2c
 
=== George Beck: May 9, 1943 ===
 
<blockquote>
We smuggled two Russian women into the camp today. I stood guard while two men were in the sawdust cellar with them and food was given to them and clothing. I was caught out by the guard and he searched all over for comrades but they got away. Later on I got and got the women through the gate showing them the direction to take, for the guard was coming round again. Latest news from the German wireless “British troops doing well for we have captured the town of Tunis and another. Arrival this week of two new lads to our camp from Munich.
</blockquote>


Chambers' narrative, which is referred to here as a diary, is remarkable in its detailed account of Civil War experiences. Its language is clear and precise, its commentary thorough. The author rarely, if ever, neglects to mention names and places involved. Therefore, the diary gives an in-depth look into Mississippi war-time experiences from Shiloh through the siege of Vicksburg to the surrender at Citronelle, Alabama.
—[[George Beck (nonfiction)|George Beck]],1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, prisoner of war (diary)


* [https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m214.html Chambers (William Pitt) Diary] @ lib.usm.edu
* http://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/george_beck.htm


== In the News ==
== In the News ==
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== Nonfiction cross-reference ==
== Nonfiction cross-reference ==


* [[George Beck (nonfiction)]]
* [[William P. Chambers (nonfiction)]]
* [[William P. Chambers (nonfiction)]]
* [[Henry Cushing (nonfiction)]]
* [[Edward Hill (nonfiction)]
* [[War (nonfiction)]]
* [[War (nonfiction)]]
* [[War Diaries (nonfiction)]]
* [[War Diaries (nonfiction)]]
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* [https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/library/the-civil-war-diary-of-edward-hill The Civil War Diary of Captain Edward Hill]
* [https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/library/the-civil-war-diary-of-edward-hill The Civil War Diary of Captain Edward Hill]
* [https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m214.html Chambers (William Pitt) Diary] @ lib.usm.edu
* [https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m214.html Chambers (William Pitt) Diary] @ lib.usm.edu
* http://www.vlib.us/medical/Cushing/journal03.html#ch2c
* http://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/george_beck.htm


[[Category:Nonfiction (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Nonfiction (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:War Diaries (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:War Diaries (nonfiction)]]

Latest revision as of 12:39, 24 May 2020

Captain Edward Hill.

War Diary entries for May 9.

Previous: May 8 - Next: May 10

Diaries

Edward Hill: May 9, 1864

Charged at 6 and carried the enemies line after an awful struggle. Cost many men. A Rebel Col with a brigade advanced to our Colors stretching them and thrusting the shaft(?) we took him prisoner we lost quite a number of good men the Adgt [Jacklin] killed or prisoner. Colestock and Sieger of my Co. each a leg broken. Skirmishing all the day

—Captain Edward Hill, 16th Michigan Infantry (diary)

William Pitt Chambers: May 9, 1865

I am a soldier no longer.

—William Pitt Chambers, Company "B," 46th Mississippi Infantry (diary)

Henry Cushing: May 9, 1915

The St. Paul, once a cruiser herself in the Spanish War, has been hitting it up very fast, so that we are off the Old Head Kinsale an hour earlier than the passengers expected. It is a bright sunny day with just a little sea, and we have passed a destroyer or two, but nothing else.

Most of the passengers were at morning service and I was writing here when Boothby looked in and said I had better come on the forward deck. This I did, but rather wish I had not. We were going through the Lusitania wreckage---had been, indeed, for the past half hour. Steamer chairs, oars, boxes, overturned boats---and bodies. As I came out we passed quite near a collapsible boat which was bottom side up, with the body of a woman and a child floating alongside; they must have been tied to it in some way, else with the easterly wind the boat would have drifted, from them.

All told, I believe some fifteen bodies were counted, and this was only in our immediate lane; the wreckage must have been strewn for some twenty miles or more---we at least were passing through it for considerably over an hour. Once we veered off to get a nearer view of the only boat which was seen to be right side up; but the officers, all of whom were on the bridge scrutinizing everything with their glasses, appeared satisfied and we went back on our course.

That was about all. No, there was something else: a single little trawler a long way off on our port quarter, evidently patrolling for corpses---at a guinea each---on this sunny Sabbath morning.

—Henry Cushing (diary)

George Beck: May 9, 1943

We smuggled two Russian women into the camp today. I stood guard while two men were in the sawdust cellar with them and food was given to them and clothing. I was caught out by the guard and he searched all over for comrades but they got away. Later on I got and got the women through the gate showing them the direction to take, for the guard was coming round again. Latest news from the German wireless “British troops doing well for we have captured the town of Tunis and another. Arrival this week of two new lads to our camp from Munich.

—George Beck,1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, prisoner of war (diary)

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links

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