Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 152

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--WISCONSIN.) Diary of a De Pere soldier at Vicksburg who did not survive the war. [75] manuscript pages, plus [2] pages of memoranda. 12mo, 6 1/2 x 3 inches, limp cloth, moderate wear; lacking one leaf (1-6 April), otherwise minor wear to contents. Various places, 1 January to 22 August 1863
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Additional Details

Private John P. Stewart (circa 1837-1863) enlisted in the 14th Wisconsin Infantry from De Pere, WI near Green Bay. He notes that this diary volume was purchased at the Union base at Young's Point, LA on 21 May 1863. He apparently transcribed his earlier notes into the diary up to that date, but after 21 May the entries become more extensive as the regiment settled into the Siege of Vicksburg. On 22 May, "Our gunboats charged on Vixburg batterys. Heavey canonating all day. Heavy musketry in the rear of Vixburg. Our regt made a charge on the Big Fort. Joseph Bergaman got killed in the charge." In the rear of the volume, Stewart memorialized comrades from his regiment who died from combat, including William Stout, killed "before Vicksburg while bravely charging on the rebbel fort, he died an honorable death" (22 May); John S. Munges, who "came to his deth by a rifle ball" (18 June); and John McFarland, who "died in the hospital at Milliken's Bend, La. from his wound reseived in the charge on the rebbel fort. . . . He died as he lived, a good man as well as a brave one" (19 June).

Victory was in sight on 3 July: "The rebbels stuck up a flag of truce all along the line. It was to bery their dead killed the night before, trying to cut their way out" The next day, "our troops marched in Vicksburg & planted the Stars & Stripes over the court house." Three days later, Stewart was engaged in "peroling prisoners all day. I seen Gen. Grant." He fell ill early in August, and on 13 August "got a furlough to go home." His entries end on 21 August near the end of his journey northward: "Left Cairo for home this morning; verry weak." The next day a family member added "John arrived this evening . . . verry weak & tired & quite sick with the chronic diarrhea." Records show that he died in Wisconsin on 6 September 1863.