Beschreibung:

3 pocket diaries (3.5x7 in. and 3.5 x 6 in.), 1862-1864. At the start of the Civil War, the Medal of Honor winner Nathaniel Barker was working as a mill operative in Piermont, N.H., and had recently married another mill hand, Wealtha Ann Melvin. In September 1862, he left behind the life he knew to enlist in the 11thNew Hampshire Infantry, an outfit that had the unusual distinction of serving in the Army of the Potomac, Army of the Tennessee, Department of the Ohio, and the Army of the Potomac again during its three years under arms. Barker’s diaries offer a continuous chronicle of his service, beginning at mustering in on Sept. 11, 1862, and continuing through and just after his wounding at Cold Harbor in June 1864. In crisp prose, Barker offers clear-eyed assessments of his active regiment. Just two months into his enlistment, he took part in his first skirmish while moving near Falmouth, reporting the incident like a seasoned veteran: The rebbels attacked our bagage train, and our Batteries replied to them and we laid under their shells for two hours but no one of our troops were wounded except 2 of the artilery, one mortally died in the afternoon... Barker’s first major battle came at Fredericksburg, where they were part of the assault on the stone wall at Marye’s Heights. The diary records those bloody events with detached calm: Marched to the River and crossed to Fredericksburg and laid on the bank all day and night the shells and shot whisled over our heads in the afternoone not more than 10 feet above them. Saturday Dec. 13th. A terrible day with us our Regt went into Battle at about one oclock and laid or rather fought untill after dark. In Co. E we had 18 wounded and missing none killed that I know of now it was a hard fought Battle and undesicive. We expect to have to go into it again. The boys fought like tigers but got very dired and dirty all covered with mud... As he did with other battles, Barker reserved space at the end of his diary to include additional material on the major events of his service. The diary for 1862 bears a sketch map of his regiment’s positions at Fredericksburg, the house and fence nearby, the place where he stanched the wounds of Capt. Shattuck, and the various positions where his comrades were wounded and killed in action. There is also a fine narrative description of the city and the damage sustained during the battle. Barker writes: there is now and then one [building] that is not damaged but the most of the show the effect of our Cannon almost every building has a shot hole through it and a great many are burned to the ground and lay in ruins. His account of the fight itself is a remarkable first hand report of one of the turning points in the whole affair: we were marched onto the Battle field where we fought until after dark. In going on to the field we had to cross a plan about 500 yds where the Rebs could throw their shells in us with teriable effect. We lost more men in crossing the plain than we did in all the rest of the engagement. The Rebs had all the advantage of us in the world. They fought in their entrenchment and we had to fight in the open field. The effect was terable, men with their heads and arms shot off and blown through legs shot off, hands shot off wounded in the face and body about every place one could think of... In 1863, the 11th New Hampshire was ordered west to take part in the Vicksburg Campaign and then to Kentucky and Tennessee for the Knoxville Campaign in November and December, with Barker providing a fine account of repulsing a Rebel attack under Longstreet on Fort Sanders in Knoxville on Nov. 29. There was a flag of truce in the afternoon for them to bury their dead. Our boys went over and see the rebs and had talk with them... But it is the diary for 1864 that contains the most dramatic content in the collection. The year began for Barker in Knoxville, and with three days per page in a small book, his entries are brief and uneventful until the 11th