Sep 29, 2022 - Sale 2615

Sale 2615 - Lot 126

Price Realized: $ 688
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR--WISCONSIN.) Charles J. Lind. Extensive memoir of his service in the famed Iron Brigade of the West. Autograph Manuscript Signed, [55] pages plus 2 additional pages of 1903 postscript by H.W. Rood. 4to, original printed notebook wrappers, detached from text block, with later taped note: "Valuable, Important, a personal diary of Chas. J. Lind"; minor wear to contents. Hillsboro, WI, February 1898
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Charles John Lind (1842-1905) was a German immigrant from Bad Ax County (now Vernon County), WI. He wrote this lively memoir of his Civil War experiences in 1898, starting with his enlistment in the 6th Wisconsin Infantry in early May 1861. The regiment was part of the legendary Iron Brigade of the West which earned its nickname at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and suffered the highest casualty rate of any Union brigade in the war. That battle is recounted in detail here, as well as South Mountain and Antietam, where Lind was badly wounded in his left eye. His long recovery is described, as well as his return to the service for the closing months of the war with the 47th Wisconsin Infantry. He wrote this narrative for inclusion in a Wisconsin war memorial in Madison, asking that it be returned to his home in Hillsboro, WI after it was transcribed.

Appended to Lind's narrative is a two-page note by H.W. Rood, the Custodian of Memorial Hall, explaining in 1903 that it had been transcribed: "I think it a most excellent story and am glad to put it where it may be kept . . . long after every old soldier of the Civil War is called into the Camp beyond the River." He suggests that survivors of "the old veteran should keep this book as a precious treasure--never part with it. . . . They should now and then read the story till they are filled with the spirit of it, and know it by heart." This engaging narrative of service in an important unit has apparently not been published.