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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--OHIO.) Andrew J. Raub. Diaries describing heavy fighting at Corinth, with his portrait and other family papers. Approximately [76], [80] manuscript diary pages, plus 17 other items, in one folder; diaries quite worn and likely missing pages, one completely disbound. Various places, 1861-1912
"We held our ground 3 howers, runout of amunition and fell back. . . "
Andrew Jackson Raub (1836-1919), a farm laborer from Bucyrus, OH, enlisted in the 3-month 8th Ohio Infantry Regiment early in the war, stayed with them when they were reorganized as a 3-year regiment, but was discharged with a disability on 19 October. He then on 12 November 1861 enlisted as a corporal in the 15th Michigan Infantry under the name Jackson Raub. He remained with them until almost the end of the war. Raub was barely literate, and wrote mostly short sporadic entries. His first diary, covering 1861, has almost no content of interest. His second diary is a packet of disbound sheets, likely with some leaves missing. However, Raub did have some interesting things to say, including one long combat passage.
Raub saw his first heavy combat at Shiloh, here noted only briefly: "Arrived at Pittsbarg Tennisee on the 5 day of April 1862, in tow days fiting on the 6 and 7 of April 1862 gaind the day." He had more to say about the lead-up to the Battle of Corith, which he begins on "September 31th": "Atact, tow men wounded, and reinforsed by the 17 and 18 Wisconstent and tow 10-pound cannon. 15th [Michigan] deployed as scermishers, 17 and 18 and artilery runs, leeves us surounded." The next day, "cut our way out, burnt our clothing for saftey," and then "fitting and fall back by the insh towards Corinth." On the days of the battle proper, he filled more than 2 pages: "We gaind a smawl bluf, opend fire on the enemy. We had 1 cannon, 500 men, the enemy 6 brigades. We held our ground 3 howers, runout of amunition and fell back, seen the enemey's black flag. We then ralleyd and 17 and 18 Wis and us, we charged on the enemy for life, drove them back in to the wodds." After the fighting, "we got the first bit to eat and first watter to drink we had for 4 days, and plenty of whiskey" (4 October).
Raub struggled with illness for the remainder of his service. On 21-22 August 1863 he wrote: "Sick, A.J. Raub lung fever. The collonel orders evry sick man out to do duty. 6 men of Co. E refuse, not able to obey the orders. Sick in tent, lung feever and the bluddy disentery and cramps but on duty, damd the doctor kills his men wit his duty." On 2 September 1863 he notes a "grand review today by Genrel Shermon." We perhaps should not take this 28 November 1863 menu literally: "Very poor breakfast, eal hash and stewed rats." His final entry was written in a Memphis hospital on 27 January 1864 while contemplating his fate--by far his longest entry at 5 pages, reflecting on his service: "I was under arest onst by the officer of the guard for arguing the scripturs. He said the Prodestins ware all hore masters and hoears, and the Catholicks ware the only cherch that sirved God & I told him that they sirved calves and engravin imeges. . . . I apeeled to Jenrell Shermon and . . . sene my antagnist casheerd and dishonorable discharged. His naim was John Maran, capton of Company G, 15 Mich." Raub was a better artist than a writer. Both diaries are embellished with several doodles, including crossed bayonets to start and close the 1861 diary.
Accompanying the diary are a group of related family papers. A set of 5 photographs includes a tintype of a very intense-looking soldier bearing a rifle, who we believe to be Raub. A postwar photograph of the same man and his wife was taken by a photographer in his hometown of Bucyrus, and another tintype shows the same young woman (presumably his wife Alice Gillespie Raub); the other two photographs may show their children. An 1842 Ohio land grant certificate is docketed as filed by Raub in 1884, and a worn 1880 circular relates to his pension claim. A clipping of his 1919 obituary from the Bucyrus Evening Telegraph clarifies his biography and adds that "He was wounded in action and carried the bullet which struck him to the end of his life," and he spent his final decades in the Toledo State Hospital for the Insane. Also included are 3 small memorandum books of son Jackson C. Raub (1873-1937) of Bisbee, AZ, including a volume of safe combinations from 1904 to 1912--he was apparently a locksmith.
