Apr 13, 2023 - Sale 2633

Sale 2633 - Lot 79

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--WISCONSIN.) Fred G. Cahoon. Diary of a young artilleryman in the defenses of Washington. [122] manuscript diary pages, plus [6] pages of memoranda. 16mo, original limp wrappers, needs binding; minor dampstaining, coming disbound. Mostly in and near Washington, DC, 1 January to 31 December 1864
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Additional Details

Frederick G. Cahoon (circa 1846-1910) of Rochester, WI was only 13 years old in November 1863 when he enlisted in Battery A of the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery. This diary began in training camp in Madison, WI, and he arrived in Washington on 7 February 1864. Cahoon moved between a variety of forts in and near the District of Columbia--mentioned in this diary are Fort Farnsworth, Fort Willard, Battery Ridge, Fort DeRussy, Battery Rodgers, Fort Ethan Allen, Camp Stoneman, Camp Tillinghast, and Fort Strong.

On 30 occasions from 19 February to 27 May, Cahoon was sent to guard a theater, although we do not know which one, or why. Other entries: "Thare was a man shot for desserting and going to the Rebels. This company had to go" (29 April). "At night we hafto sleep in the fort, danger of gurillas" (13 June). "Got a counterfit pass and went to Washington this morning with a friend. Had a nice time. Went all around the city, got back all write" (5 July). "Was detailed with som others to go and arest some nigers. We did do and fetched them to camp" (7 July). At Fort DeRussy, "Lincoln and Seward were hear today. They are visiting all of the forts around hear" (11 July). The death of comrade George P. Wade from disease is noted on 20 September.

Laid into the diary are an 18 July 1865 pass issued to Cahoon, signed by his captain; and a 1937 note by his widow: "Mr. Cahoon carried this diary all through the war. He went in at 13 years." Sources disagree on his age, but he was likely older than 13 at his enlistment in 1863. The 1850 and 1860 censuses for Rochester, WI suggest that he was born circa 1845 or 1846. His prison record shows him born circa 1847, the 1900 census lists his birth year as 1850, and his Kansas City gravestone states that he was born in 1849.

His counterfeit pass to visit Washington offered some foreshadowing of Cahoon's post-war life. Working as a bookkeeper in San Francisco in 1879, he was convicted of embezzlement, and sentenced to a 3-year sentence in San Quentin Prison. He married in 1898, worked for a railroad, and divided his time between Kansas City and Long Beach, CA, where he died in 1910.