Beschreibung:

Pocket diary, approx. 3.25 x 5 in., with leather cover and flap closure, printed one page per day for the year 1864. Identified to Private Harvey S. Hogue, Co. G, 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Entries made daily from January 1, 1864 to December 31, 1864, also with notes in "Memoranda" and "Cash Accounts" sections. Daily entries describe service in a regiment primarily devoted to protecting the crucial Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad from Confederate forces. Includes references to Wheeler's Raid of Aug 31, 1864, the Battle of Franklin, and Hogue's description of captivity after surrendering to Confederate General John Bell Hood's forces near Murfreesboro, TN. Harvey Hogue (1843-1914), a resident of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, enlisted as a private on July 28, 1862 and mustered into Company "G" of the 115th Ohio Volunteers in September 1862. HDS records indicate that he was listed as a POW on 12/5/64 in Antioch, TN, escaped a rebel prison in Cahaba, AL at an undetermined date, and returned to his regiment on 2/11/65. Weeks after promotion to Corporal, he mustered out on 6/22/65 at Murfreesboro, TN. Both the diary offered here and Hogue's later accounts of his Civil War service prove him to be a man of affable humor and wry wit. Daily diary entries are written with a characteristic levity that often defies the gravity of his situation both before and after his capture. Even in December 1864 after a 16-mile march with his captors through knee-deep mud and water, Hogue would sign-off the day's diary entry with his signature indicator of good health and spirits, "Feel bully." Hogue is a consistent diarist who records weather, drills, picket duty, foraging, correspondence, health matters, and stories about other soldiers in the unit. He seems to have particular dislike for Co. G's own Capt. Deming N. Lowry, who is described by Hogue as an "old tyrent" and an "arbitrary Brute." While Hogue's duty in early 1864 appears to have afforded him relative calm and safety, by the second half of 1864 his regiment was increasingly under Confederate threat. Soldiers from the 115th not mounted were stationed at blockhouses near Murfreesboro in June 1864 and tasked with defending the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, a vital and singular supply line to General Sherman's troops as they marched towards Atlanta. Hogue notes this new assignment in his diary on June 4, and thereafter details the Confederate incursions threatening his regiment. He describes Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate Cavalry raid on August 31, 1864, saying: "...about 9AM a negro reports that Wheeler is coming and tareing up the track. Just after dinner some of the boys go up to the Fork [?] and find about 20 Johnys cutting the wire and destroying the track / They fire on them and they light out. At 9 PM they are fighting over on the pike! Fight nearly all night." He notes hearing heavy cannonading all day during the Battle of Franklin on Nov 30, 1864. Days later attacks on the blockhouses would begin. Hogue writes on December 2: "Rebels attack Bhouse No.2 fight all afternoon." Then on December 3 and 4th: "Rebs attack us with rifles at 10AM. At 3PM they advance with flag of truce and demand a surrender. We don't see it. They fire 77 guns at us 12 perimeters... [Dec 4] Morning fine. Rebs resume their fire on us at 7AM. Fire 16 guns. We surrender at 12PM on conditions that any personal property be respected. After are [?] out. Our guns, blankets are taken. [The Confederates] kept our money then our overcoats. Hats, boots, almost everything. / We march about 6 miles. Are put under guard near Gen. Hood's headquarters." So begins Hogue's POW experience which he then documents daily through December 31. With as much detail as possible given the page per day format, Hogue describes daily marches and travel in rail cars through Tennessee, then Alabama, then Mississippi, while en route towards the infamous Andersonville prison camp. He notes the brutality and difficulty he experienced along