Apr 13, 2023 - Sale 2633

Sale 2633 - Lot 67

Price Realized: $ 1,170
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(CIVIL WAR--OHIO.) Adam Fishel. Diaries kept by a private under Sherman, from Chickamauga to Atlanta to Savannah to Washington. [96], [73], [16] manuscript diary pages, plus [23] memoranda pages through 1866, plus 8 loose pages of Fishel's contemporary notes copied from the diaries and sent home. 3 volumes. 16mo and 12mo, original wrappers, worn; first diary disbound with moderate wear and apparently missing at least two diary leaves (14 October to 3 November 1863, 30 July to 2 August 1864), otherwise minor wear. Accompanied by a binder with a full transcript, color prints of all pages, and a CD and floppy disk containing the data. Various places, 11 August 1862 to 9 June 1865
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Adam Fishel (1832-1912) was a farmer in Minerva, in Carroll County, OH near Canton. He was married with three children when he enlisted as a private in the 98th Ohio Infantry in May 1862; he remained in the service through the end of the war. The regiment saw heavy fighting in Georgia. Fishel's spelling was largely phonetic, although his handwriting was usually clear. His entries for the first two years are sporadic and generally quite brief: "March aboute 12 miles. Battle comence in the morning. Left the battle field in the evning, com back to the old camp. . . . The name of the battle is Chicamauga" (20 September 1863). "The rebbel bushwhackers bushwack us, and we return the compliment" (8 October 1863). "Battle fought on Missionary Ridge. The Rebs retreted and left, the Union men gained the battlegrown all three days" (25 November 1863).

Fishel began writing more substantial daily entries when his regiment joined the Atlanta Campaign in May 1864. At the Battle of Resaca: "Marched till 1 o'clock, and then went in front. Heavy firing both by artillery and muskets, one man killed and severels woonded in our regt. . . . Went a short distance wher there was some rifels pits. Engagement comence erley in the morning, afful hard fightin kept up all day. We wer waken up in the night and went in the rifils pits, verey heavey firing in the night" (14-15 May 1864). In the ongoing siege of Atlanta, he wrote on 20 June: "When our men comenced to shell the Rebbs, som off the shells busted over us. Canonading comence erley in the morning. It was afful heavey canonading. It was a constant rore in our front, the like I never herd." At Kennesaw Mountain on 27 June: "We crosed over 2 lines off rifels pits and went at a doubel quick, and made a charge on the Rebs rifels pits. The 2 front lines wer repulsed and had to fall back. Our regt held the grown that we gained. We went to werck and built a rifel pit. . . . The Rebs had a cross fire on us with canister shots and musketry." Two days later, "Finished buring our ded under the grant off a flag off truce. All is quiet and still while the ded is being buried. There is no kind off werk a going on . . . it ain't alowed. As soon as the ded wer all buried and our men got off the buring grown, the Rebs sharp shooters comence a shooting." At Jonesborough, the closing battle of the campaign, "we stopt but a short time till we wer ordered to charge the Rebs' wercks. We took ther wercks, and drove them back. There was awful hard fighting. The fight lasted over an our. Dark closed the battel. We took a great many prisiners and 18 pieces of artillery" (1 September 1864). The Union troops occuipied the city the next day, and on 12 September Fishel wrote: "I went to the citty of Atalanta to see the plaice."

In the second diary, on 20 October, "we got the wheate around in the countrey. We cleaned the countrey out cleane of all kinds of foridge." He records the election on 8 November 1864, although not his candidate of choice: "We stopt close to Cartersville and campt and then we had our election. The poles wer open on the rode on the march and som voted." Fishel participated in Sherman's "March to the Sea." 13 November: "Cartersville was burnt before we left. we burnt the bridge that was across the river." 15 November: "We went through the citty of Atalanta. It was in a flame of fire." They trudged through numerous swamps, in places where retreating Rebels had burnt the bridges. On 23 December, Fishel strolled the streets of Savannah. Next was the march up through the Carolinas. On the Broad River in South Carolina, "there was afful distruction of property by fire today" (17 February 1865). He describes the battle of Bentonville at length--the last battle of Sherman's army: "There was heavy skirmishing and cannonading all the time. . . . The Rebbels had our brig. and the first brig of our division surounded. . . . It was a hard fight. The pickets kept up a brisk firing all night" (19 March 1865). Soon, "Everything is quiett, the Rebbels is gone. . . . Thus, our long and werisom campaign has com to a close, whitch we have march over 5 hundred miles since we left Savannah" (22-23 March 1865). Fishel continued the diary through his discharge, but the heavy fighting had come to a close.

WITH--partial brass "US" belt buckle said to be Fishel's, and a Real Photo postcard of Fishel as an older man.