Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 63

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(CIVIL WAR--ILLINOIS.) Archibald S. Corken. Diary of a private at Vicksburg, including his thoughts on the Fort Pillow Massacre. 60 war-date diary entries on scattered daily diary pages, plus 7 pages of civilian diary entries and 11 memorandum pages at the rear of the volume. 32mo, 4 x 2¼ inches, original calf, worn; minor wear to contents; signed by Corken on front pastedown and title page. Various places, 30 November 1863 to 1 November 1864
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Additional Details

"God have mercy on any of Forrest's troops who are met by our men."

Archibald S. Corken (1843-circa 1890) was born in England was a druggist from Aledo, Illinois and enlisted in the 17th Illinois, serving three years as a private. During the period of this diary, he was mostly stationed in the occupation of Vicksburg after the Union's successful siege of 1863.

Supply lines were tenuous during the early part of the occupation. On 2 January 1864 he wrote "Commissary stores are getting very scarce. There is no whiskey at the post, since the potatoes have all frozen." Tensions with the locals also ran high; the next day he wrote "Provost marshal issued an order banishing five ladies from this place for insulting our government by leaving church on Christmas Day when the prayer for the president of the United States was made." General Sherman passed through the base twice, on 16 January and 28 February. Corken noted the regiment's poor discipline and morale: "Every evening the town is crowded with officers and men, many of them drunk and disorderly, swearing, drinking & carousing the whole night long" (16 March).

The most dramatic entry is a meditation on the notorious Fort Pillow Massacre which fills the 20-22 April pages: "Our news from Ft. Pillow confirms all the previous reports that we have heard. The Rebels were repulsed twice but gained the fort while negotiations were pending and a flag of truce held by them. . . . After our men surrendered, the Rebs shot them like hogs, giving no quarter. All the Negro troops were killed with a good many of the white troops. Numbers were drawn into the river, others were burned alive in the buildings they had taken refuge in. Many were buried alive, some of whom dug out. God have mercy on any of Forrest's troops who are met by our men."

Corken began the process of mustering out on 17 May, and returned home to Rock Island, IL on 26 June. The diary includes a handful of civilian entries; he heard Schuyler Colfax speak in Davenport, Iowa on 31 October. After the war, Corken sold clocks and watches in Iowa, and was a jeweler in Rock Island, IL.

Tucked in the back of the volume are two signed cartes-de-visite: one of an unidentified soldier (Corken?) by William Owen of Evansville, WI; and a post-war signed portrait of Corken by Cook & Newberry of Rock Island, IL. Also included is Corken's Davenport, IA business card.

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