(CIVIL WAR NEW YORK) John L Little Diary and memorandum boo

Sale 2600 - Lot 85

Price Realized: $ 531

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(CIVIL WAR--NEW YORK.) John L. Little. Diary and memorandum book of a captain at the Siege of Suffolk. [13] manuscript diary pages, plus [77] pages of memoranda. 16mo. contemporary calf, worn and nearly disbound; moderate dampstaining. Various places, 1863-64

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John L. Little (1840-1913) was a clerk in civilian life, son of an Irish-born baker in Manhattan. When he wrote this diary from 28 March to 22 May 1863, he was captain of Company A in the 127th New York Infantry. For much of that time he was part of the besieged Union force at Suffolk, VA, writing "Continual cannonading kept up by our gunboats on the woods" (19 April) and "Fort Nansemond firing at the Rebs all the time" (1 May). He helped determine that the siege was lifted on 4 May with an epic march: "At 3 a.m. left camp in light marching order on the Somerton Road. After marching about 15 miles and finding that the enemy had retreated, we returned to camp, which place we reached at 6 p.m., having marched about 33 miles."

The memoranda consist mostly of supply requisitions issued to the company's individual soldiers from May 1863 to October 1864, mostly while stationed on the South Carolina coast.