War Diaries (May 9) (nonfiction)
War Diary quotations for May 9.
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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
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.
- Transcription of the Diary of Edward Hill, May 9, 1864 - May 14, 1864
- The Civil War Diary of Captain Edward Hill
William Pitt Chambers: May 9, 1865
I am a soldier no longer.
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.
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."
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.
- Chambers (William Pitt) Diary @ lib.usm.edu