Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 110

Price Realized: $ 1,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR--NEW YORK.) Augustus W. Sargent. Diary of Corporal Sargent on the North Carolina campaign. 121 manuscript diary pages plus 22 pages of cash accounts and memoranda. 16mo, original limp calf, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; signed on front free endpaper. Various places, 1 January to 29 December 1865
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Additional Details

Augustus Wilder Sargent (1840-1894) of Boonville, NY on the western edge of the Adirondacks mustered in as a private with the 117th New York Infantry, and was a corporal by the time of this diary. He had been injured in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, and the first month of this diary was written while on leave recuperating in his hometown. En route to his regiment, he stopped at Point of Rocks, MD, where he visited the photo gallery (10 February) and "discovered the first louse today since I left home" (11 February), and then stayed in Hampton, VA for a month while his transport ship was mired in mud. He did not reach his regiment in North Carolina until 14 March, when he joined the march on Goldsborough. His regiment undertook vigorous foraging in the countryside, "bringing in sweet potatoes and meat and a general assortment of everything" (22 March). Four days later, he went out with two men: "In the course of three or four hours we returned with all the meat and potatoes we could carry."

The dramatic events of April are duly noted. "The news of the fall of Richmond was received hear this forenoon with great joy by all" (6 April); "About 1 pm we received the news of the surrender of Lee" (12 April). On 15 April the regiment occupied the city of Raleigh; our diarist visited the capitol and lunatic asylum. Not until 18 April did he note "a report has been in circulation that the President has been killed, but it has been contradicted. It cast a gloom over the whole camp." News of General Johnston's surrender was received on 27 April, bringing the war in the east to an end; the next night "rockets are being thrown up all over the city . . . it seems like the fourth of July." Sargent mustered out on 8 June and made his way back north to Boonville.