The June entries looked scarier — more fighting and shooting. The last entry was written June 9, 1864. He had to “hide out all day,” he wrote.
This was absolutely compelling for me. (I can’t imagine how a tiny leather datebook from 1864 could survive the Civil War and still be around today in decent condition. I can’t imagine what else he wrote in there, or the things he dealt with within the context of the war, or the day-to-day realities of 1864 in general.) And suddenly…
Oldtimey finds a blog (well) from the Civil War for Veteran’s Day.
Maciej finds a post from a French blogger that visited an American cemetery from the Great War.
Seriously, that Civil War diary was astonishing to read (what I could of it) — powerful stuff. There was no chance of a helicopter heroic rescue, or a lucrative book deal once the wounds healed, or medical care or any such thing, for that guy. I can never understand why history books try to teach dates/battlefield names/trivialities and never actually give any sense of the *life* back then. History has life inherent.