War Diaries (June 9) (nonfiction)
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Diaries
Isaac Lyman Taylor: June 9, 1863
Two or three wagon loads of contrabands of all ages arrive at the depot this morning. They are a portion of those captured by [Hugh J.] Kilpatrick's cavalry on their return from Gloucester. The Rebels throw a few shells at Sedgwicks troops and our batteries on this side the river. We have dress parade during the cannonade. We hear artillery firing up river.
—Isaac Lyman Taylor, Company E, First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry
Taylor kept a diary of his experiences while serving with Company E of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.
The story of Kilpatrick's cavalry is related in James Moore, Kilpatrick and Our Cavalry (New York, 1865).
Ernest Vincent Helms: June 9, 1944
Contrary to news reports it was much tougher because the fire from the beaches kept the infantry flat on their faces for three hours before they could move up the beach, until more accurate Naval gunfire, plus air support, allowed them to move forward under the enormous barrage. The first assault of tanks was not successful at all. Some companies lost all but two or three tanks, either in the water or on the beach from the hill fortifications. The area was not heavy with mines as we expected, but there were snipers in every farmhouse and hedgerow. The French were doing a great deal of it too especially French gals who were the wives of German soldiers.
- Diary of Ernest Vincent Helms - Lieutenant Ernest Vincent Helms, Tank Platoon Leader, 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division, U.S. Army / Omaha Beach
Tatsusei Yogi: June 9, 1945
We were surprised when the police chief told us that troops had landed at Itoman. He told us that the shack was in danger, so we left for Kiyan. We slept under the shelter of a rock to avoid the rain. The only food we had was sugar cane; the sugar we had was gone.
—Tatsusei Yogi was a Japanese civilian in Okinawa.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- Contraband (American Civil War) (nonfiction) - a term commonly used in the United States military during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain escaped slaves or those who affiliated with Union forces. In August 1861, the Union Army (and the United States Congress) determined that the US would no longer return escaped slaves who went to Union lines and classified them as "contraband of war", or captured enemy property. They used many as laborers to support Union efforts and soon began to pay them wages. The former slaves set up camps near Union forces, and the Army helped support and educate both adults and children among the refugees. Thousands of men from these camps enlisted in the United States Colored Troops when recruitment started in 1863. At war's end, more than 100 contraband camps existed in the South, including the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, where 3500 former slaves worked to develop a self-sufficient community.
- Tatsusei Yogi (nonfiction)
- Isaac L. Taylor (nonfiction)
- War (nonfiction)
- War Diaries (nonfiction)
