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Duncan's journal is a brief account of the earliest operations of the 23rd Ohio Infantry while serving in West Virginia in 1861. The orderly book contains copies of orders issued in 1864 and 1865 from the Headquarters of the Army of West Virginia and the Army of Shenandoah, including some signed by William McKinley.

Duncan's journal is a very well written, unfortunately brief account of the earliest operations of the 23rd Ohio, from its mustering in at Camp Chase through the first two months of its service in West Virginia. Even though the passages are generally short, they provide an excellent idea of the difficulties of operating in the mountainous country, and of the problems of poor training and discipline. There is a good second-hand description of the Battle of Rich Mountain, as well as two descriptions of the battlefield a month after the fact, and a long and detailed account of the Battle of Carnifex Ferry. As good as the battle descriptions, though, are his descriptions of the aftermath of Carnifex Ferry, particularly his powerful, grisly description of the expressions on the faces of corpses littering the battlefield.

The orderly book contains 35 routine carbon copies of orders issued late in the war from Headquarters of the Army of West Virginia and the Army of Shenandoah. The book was apparently originally William McKinley's, and many of the orders from Shenandoah are signed by him. Two orders are of some interest: one (in triplicate) dated April 27th, 1865, noting the capture of John Wilkes Booth, and the other, dated April 29th, reporting the surrender of Johnston's army to Sherman.

Duncan included four pencil sketches in his diary, 1) a rough sketch of a "Virginia secesh," 2) a view of Glenville, West Virginia, and sketches of the battlefields at 3) Rich Mountain and 4) Carnifex Ferry indicating troop placements, etc.

Charles Geddings Rogers graduated from West Point in 1854 and served in the cavalry of the Army of the Tennessee during the Civil War. His pocket diary contains entries from February to May 1865, with a brief retrospective of his unit's movements in 1864. It also includes registers of pupils from his post-war teaching days, drafts of poems, and various other personal notes.

The pocket diary in which Rogers writes has on the flyleaf and in several other places the name Alfred Stout, but the entries begin in Rogers' hand on February 9, 1865, with a retrospective detailing briefly his unit's movements from September, 1864, through Tennesee and Alabama with General Forrest. Engagements noted include the capture of Athens and fighting at Sulphur Branch Trestle, Ala., and at Pulaski, Tenn., where he notes that he was within 400 yards of his family, but could not see them because of the presence of Union troops. Rogers apparently spent most of December and January visiting friends and family, but rejoined his unit in early February just in time to participate in the largely unsuccessful attempt to block Sherman's march through South Carolina. He mentions briefly the defense and evacuation of Fayetteville, skirmishing along the Black River, and the Battle of Bentonville, N.C. Disappointingly, he mentions Lincoln's inauguration and assassination with little more than a straightforward notation; Lee's surrender at Appomattox rouses him slightly more: "sad news indeed, " though he does inveigh briefly and bitterly against the men at home who are too cowardly to join the fight: "so much for the boasted chivalry of the South." By war's end he seems embittered by the fate of "our noble little army" whom he sees as having been "sacrificed on the altar of a ruthless and hopeless cause." His anger is seemingly directed against the C.S.A., and he notes, it seems without irony, on the day of his mustering out, "and now for home, and there forever as a truly loyal citizen of the great U.S." The diary ends shortly thereafter, although the notebook also contains registers of pupils from his post-war teaching days, drafts of poems and various other personal notes.