Jun 05, 2008 - Sale 2148

Sale 2148 - Lot 113

Price Realized: $ 6,860
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
"FOR GOD SAKE, WHEN WILL THIS CRUEL WAR BE ENDED?" (CIVIL WAR--MAINE.) Chapin, Arthur T. Group of 4 autograph diaries by a Maine artilleryman. 4 volumes. 16mo, leather covers, quite worn; some interior dampstaining, first volume is detached from its cover and one page is loose, but all pages are quite legible. Vp, 1862-1864
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Additional Details

a soldier's hard service in virginia. Before the war, Arthur Thomas Chapin (1843-1925) was a resident of Augusta, ME. He enlisted in the 4th Battery of the Maine Light Artillery and served for three years as a private, most of it in Virginia. After the war, he was an early settler in Nebraska. Chapin Creek and Chapin Precinct in rural Wayne County are both named after him.

These diaries begin with Chapin's enlistment on 4 January 1862, with only sporadic entries through 13 June. From that point he kept almost daily entries through his discharge in January 1865. At the Battle of Cedar Mountain: "We had to go into Battery under fire, then we were ordered to give it to them. This is the first time we have ben under fire. The shot and shell flew thick and fast. One shell struck our gun and broke the axe and knocked down two men . . . We were under fire three hours and a half. We had to leave the field at the double quick. We went into park a short distance from the field and jest getting ready to lay down when the rebs got range on us and we had to leave again in a hurry. I never was so tired in my life and I am on guard tonight" (9 August 1862). Two days after Antietam, where his battery had been in reserve: "Marched acrossed the battle field. It was a horrible sight. They are burying the dead as fast as possible. 27 men lay dead where a battery had ben firing" (19 September 1862). Chapin also has a good description of the Battle of Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburg in 1864. In front of Petersburg, he reported that "Jerry Keene was all blowed to pieces today, a shell burst jest as it struck him" (21 June 1864).

Other entries relate to camp life: "Paid today. The P.M. (paymaster) was so drunk he couldent walk straight" (26 April 1863); "The boys are having a concert tonight in Jones tent, all quiet in camp except the fiddle" (29 April 1864). He refrained from complaining much until shortly before his muster-out: "For God sake, when will this cruel war be ended" (10 January 1865).

with--complete typed transcripts of all four diaries Chapin's discharge (worn, cello tape repairs) and a 2-page typescript memoir of Chapin's life, which states that he was a witness to Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre and discusses his adventures as a deputy sheriff in frontier Nebraska.