(CIVIL WAR INDIANA) McLaughlin John Account of a privates m

Sale 2432 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 688

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

"40,000 MEN MARCH THROUGH A CORNFIELD, THERE IS NOT MUCH LEFT OF IT" (CIVIL WAR--INDIANA.) McLaughlin, John. Account of a private's march to Atlanta under Sherman. [13] manuscript pages on lined paper. 4to, contemporary cloth-backed boards printed in gilt by S.A. Nickerson of Fort Recovery, OH, minor wear; first two leaves detached with moderate edge wear. Vp, 23 December 1863 to 12 September 1865

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John S. McLaughlin (1833-1890), a farmer of Jay County, IN was married without children when he mustered into service as a private with the 130th Indiana. He met the regiment near Chattanooga, TN in April 1864, noting "things so destroyed not even stock to eat the grass, this being the result of the army passing through, leaving the country stripped." The regiment soon marched into Georgia as part of Sherman's army, seeing its first action at the Battle of Rocky Face Ridge in May 1864 "at what is called Buzzard Roost Gap. We were in the engagement about 3 hours, our Capt was severely wounded and 4 privates wounded, 1 shot through the head, 1 shot in foot, 1 had fingers all shot off, 1 shot in the breast." On 21 May he wrote "we gave the Rebels a good whipping last Sunday at Resacca," and observed that when "40,000 men march through a cornfield there is not much left of it." The main objective was nearly reached on 25 May 1864: "Now within 1 mile of Atlanta Georgia. We are building works, we have skirmishers out all the time, and we send them some shells into the city every day." After it fell, on 14 August, "our brigade went to Atlanta yesterday to see the city. There is not a house in the city but what has been struck with a shell. They had even holes dug in the ground where they staid when we shelled the city." On a subsequent march to Alabama, McLaughlin fell ill and was transferred to a hospital in Indiana, and did not rejoin his regiment until May 1865. This volume was apparently transcribed after the war from his field diary and/or letters home; the notebook was purchased in the town where McLaughlin was buried in 1890. with--his pocket New Testament (lacking title page) inscribed "John S McLaughlin date 1864 carried during my service in the Civil War, C Company, I 130 Volunteers."