Historic 1864 Diary Group, Capt. 143rd Pa. 5 Battles, J. Chamberlain
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:153191 | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
Very Historic complete 1864 Diary grouping of Capt. M. Lewis Blair Co. E 143rd Pa. Inf. Diary is all hand written both in ink & pencil. It is very legible with times when Blair writes across the page. He gives a full year of every day events with pickett duty, card games, ball games & even snowball fights. Starting in Feb. gives about fighting units coming up in Virginia for battles. In May the battle accounts really take over everyday events. He tells of Lincoln rep...rieving soldier from being shot. Battle info starts with Battle of the Wilderness, Spottsvyania Court house, Cold harbor, Petersburg with the mine explosion & Col. Joshua Chamberlain being wounded. & then battle of Weldon RR. The 143rd was transferred into Chamberlain's 20th Maine at Petersburg & he tells of being Officer of the Picketts for that unit. Blair gives great accounts of the different battles & tell about 10 NY Cavalrymen shooting a rebel guerrilla. He tells about being shot at by rebel snipers while in the trenches writing letters home. He gives accounts of different Officers as Grant, Chamberlain, Burnsides, Butler, Sherman, Sheridan, Hooker & even R.E. Lee. Capt. Blair tells of being quartermaster for his unit & being on court martials. He accounts on Lincolns first day of Thanksgiving. Blair writes around 100 accounts of battles in this diary which I have transcribed. In the back of the diary Blair lists the men from his units, their wounds or if killed. He even tells about sending a diary which had a 5 dollar bill found on one of the killed soldiers back to his wife. He gives accounts of moving the wounded from the different battles. There is a world of history in this diary. There is no way I can list them all. At the back he drew a picture of a grave yard with a monument that had fallen, which was George Washington's mothers grave, at Fredericksburg, Va. during the Wilderness battle. Blair wrote his name & unit & where they were in the front of the diary. The diary itself is in good used condition with the front cover having some separations but is still intact. Also with the diary is Blair's GAR cane which has his name & GAR unit . Top of the cane is carved as a CW soldier's head with kepi. Also there is a no. of original papers of Blair's including a letter to Quartermaster General in 1865 for uniforms for his men. Also there are papers from him on mining stocks, when he was alderman & other large papers from Pa. These are from the 1880s & 90s. I have copies of his records in which on some list his name as M. Lewis Blair & some as M. Lewis Blain all of Co. E 143rd Pa. & all the same soldier. I have copies of the records of the men he listed as wounded & killed & history of the 143rd Pa. Inf. A really historic Civil War diary from Jan.1 to Dec. 31, 1864.
