War Diaries (June 1) (nonfiction)
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Diaries
Michael Shiner: June 1, 1846
The Battle of the Harrington Hotel on the navy yard on 8 Street on the 1 day of June 1846 on monday it Commenced with John Loyd and one of the sargeants of the Baltimore Battalion as the Blessed lord woud have it that day was Election day after Dinner all the Mechanics and men of different Classes were out of the yard if they had not Been Those Baltimore men would have killed all those Lloyds against Mr Adams comes old Mr James Meads caught one fellow and trew him clear across the Street and look around an ask if they wher anny more of them and every one of those fellows that Jumped the garison wall had a stick of wood with them those Navy Yard men got them all befor them and moved them and some Women helped to moved them with a volley of stones as they pass along the Mechanics of the 6 ward in washington wher going to give those Battalions a handsome presentation. but they Behaved so Wild that the people were glad to get rid of them this old gentelman that i References to Mr. James Meads Sr. was a finer old gentelmen as ever wher Born were kind to everybody but it wouldent do you to fool with him if you did he would make the fier fly out of you they got so Bad that the Citizens of Washington had to make complaint to the Hon Wm L Marcy Secretary of war at that time the secretary orderd them to Fort Washington untild there where a vessel Charterd They Marched from the Marine Barracks through the Navy yard on thee way to fort washington under the command of Colonel Watson the 11 day June 1846 on Thursday ther wher so Wild that they hurreid them away from Washington to Mexico and the Washington Battalion went with them
— Michael Shiner Michael Shiner was a working man who kept a diary of experiences in the Washington Navy Yard from 1813 to 1869. [This is not strictly a war diary entry; I include it here as an example of the lawlessness and proto-rebellion of the era.]
Edward Hill: June 1, 1864
An alarm last night. I had charge of the Picket line on the left. This morning the 16 ordered to advance. carried the enemies rifle Pitts and advanced to the brow of the Hill, when I was shot in the right thigh. alas poor Yorick-
—Captain Edward Hill, 16th Michigan Infantry, Union Army
George Beck: June 1, 1940
Started on long trek from France to Germany via Belgium and Holland. Had to pull comrade first twelve miles on wheelbarrow, he was wounded in legs and stomach. German officer (Medical) injected morphia into him to ease pain. Left him at church where he was taken away by ambulance.
—George Beck (diary)
Philip Mechanicus: June 1, 1943
The transports continue to evoke disgust. People are actually taken in animal wagons intended for transporting horses. And the deported no longer lie on straw but among their bags of food and small pieces of luggage on the bare floor — including the ill, who were given a mattress only last week. They’re gathered at the exits of their barracks and taken by OD men [OD stands for Ordedienst, the camp’s police force required to keep order] in rows of three to the train on the Boulevard des Misères, in the middle of the camp.
The train: a long, mangy snake of filthy old wagons splitting the camp in two. The Boulevard: a deserted area guarded by OD men to keep redundant onlookers at bay. The exiles carry a bread bag strapped to the shoulder and hanging on their hips, as well as a rolled-up blanket hanging from the other shoulder by a rope and swinging on their backs. Dirty emigrants who own no more than what they’re wearing and what is hanging from them. Men: quiet, faces drawn; women: often sobbing. The elderly: stumbling down the bad road, sometimes through mud puddles, buckling under their heavy load. The ill on stretchers, hauled by OD men.
Philip Mechanicus, a journalist in his 50s, was arrested in September 1942 for not wearing a Star of David on a tram, and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the northeast Netherlands where many Jews were brought. Most were then sent on to Nazi concentration and extermination camps farther east in Poland, Germany and Austria. The diary of Mechanicus, published in English in 1968, documented camp life with precision. He often spoke of the transports, which left every Tuesday, carrying 1,000 to 3,000 people, to even harsher fates.
- Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times
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External links
- Diary of Michael Shiner
- Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times