Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection contains correspondence, documents, and typescripts related to Byron D. Paddock's service in the 1st Michigan Light Artillery Regiment, Battery F, during the Civil War. Most of the manuscripts concern the Atlanta Campaign and its immediate aftermath.

This collection contains correspondence, documents, and typescripts related to Byron D. Paddock's service in the 1st Michigan Light Artillery Regiment, Battery F, during the Civil War. Manuscript letters, reports, and orders largely pertain to the regiment's actions during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and in its immediate aftermath, including the siege and surrender of Atlanta. A typescript includes extracts from published works regarding the 1st Michigan Light Artillery Regiment, a muster roll for Battery F with information about each soldier's disposition at the end of the war, and a Paddock's war diaries. The diaries concern Paddock's experiences between January 1, 1862, and April 15, 1865, particularly with regard to camp life, target practice, movements and marches, engagements with Confederate forces and batteries, and celebrations at the end of the war. A gap from September to October 1864 coincides with Paddock's furlough.

The Charles Machin memoir - in narrative form - documents the personal, financial, and business-related trials of an early 19th century trader of a variety of goods, including cotton, slaves, and mahogany.

The Charles Machin memoir was written in an engaging, literary style, its strength lying in its ability to put the reader into the mind of an early 19th-century trans-Atlantic merchant. It is possible that Machin embellished the truth to make for better reading.

English in origin, Machin lived and traded in Savannah, Charleston, New York, Philadelphia, Jamaica, Havana, and England, moving easily among the port cities, raising capital and stores for trading voyages that inevitably went sour. Through his adventures, Machin emerges as a likable, but not always reputable man who beat and threatened the lives of his debtors and was willing to engage in smuggling cotton and slaves. At the same time, he was constantly surprised by the unethical behavior of his partners and their willingness to hurt others in the name of profit. Machin was repeatedly caught up in the machinations of other, more ruthless merchants.

The memoir provides insight into the financial wrangling, legal and extralegal, of merchants and entrepreneurs. The networks of friendships and false-friendships, the schemes to raise money, and the ideas about profit and risk are all important in situating the mind of the early American merchant. In some ways, Machin was the proverbial man without a country who either easily switched identities or whose identity changed with the context: an Englishman, a some-time resident of Savannah, and a trader in any port or enterprise that promised a good return.

Machin's memoir also includes some excellent descriptions of life in the several ports and countries he visited, most notably of Havana and other locations in Cuba, but also of Jamaica, Cartagena, and the far interior of Georgia and South Carolina.

Charles M. Barnett's Civil War journal documents important events in southeastern Tennessee between August and October, 1863, including the Tullahoma Campaign, the retreat from Chickamauga, and parts of the Chattanooga Campaign.

Charles M. Barnett's journal is contained in a single volume, beginning May 1, 1863. The entries for 1864 are written in the front part of the same volume, with corrections as to day and date noted occasionally. The journal contains particularly useful information on the signal events in southeastern Tennessee between August and October, 1863, including the Tullahoma Campaign, the retreat from Chickamauga, and parts of the Chattanooga Campaign, including the opening of the Cracker Line and the Wauhatchie Night Attack.

Charles Henthorn's papers consist of letters home during his service in the 77th Illinois Infantry, including descriptions of African Americans in the army, towns and plantations in the South, and his thoughts on the war.

The Henthorn papers consist of seven letters written by Henthorn to his father, Nelson, two to his younger brother, George, three to his sister, Sarah, and one letter from Nelson to George Henthorn. Charles Henthorn is an unusually powerful writer and provides thoughtful, evocative descriptions of the events unfolding around him. His observations on the varied roles of African Americans in the army are particularly noteworthy. They are depicted in several ways: as informers on Confederate sympathizers hiding from the Union Army, as victims of racism and southern hatred, and as highly motivated and effective soldiers at the Battle of Milliken's Bend. Henthorn appears to have a much more positive attitude toward blacks than many of his fellow soldiers, and he appears equally to be aware of this fact.

Equally interesting are Henthorn's descriptions of the land itself, including fine descriptions of towns in Indiana and Ohio, and of evacuated plantations in Louisiana. He makes several references to hostile southern attitudes toward the Union troops, and describes an instance of pillaging by members of his regiment. There are two second-hand accounts of battles, the Battles of Richmond and Milliken's Bend, but by and large, there is very little martial content in Henthorn's letters. He is instead at his best in his reflections on the effect of the conflict on the soldiers and civilians. The final two letters in the collection provide (respectively) an insight into the depth of Henthorn's religiously held pro-Union, anti-slavery views, and an account of a copperhead rally in Lacon during the 1864 presidential election which featured a coffin containing a likeness of Lincoln with buzzards flying overhead.

In his journal, Daniel Shea, a literate, passionate writer, has left an outstanding record of his service during the last months of the Civil War.

In his journal, Daniel Shea, a literate, passionate writer, has left an outstanding record of his service during the last months of the Civil War. Although the journal entries are seldom of any great length, they are frequent enough and detailed enough to be useful, particularly during the Mobile and Montgomery campaigns. Although Shea identified with his "ethnic" background -- he was Irish born and raised -- he did not serve in an ethnic regiment, and mentions his background explicitly only once, on Saint Patrick's Day.

This collection contains a diary and a volume of reminiscences by Gilbert Edwin Dunbar, who served with the 13th Michigan Infantry Regiment from 1862 to 1865. The diary relates to his service as assistant quartermaster in Chattanooga, Tennessee, between January and August 1864. The reminiscences cover his experiences between late 1861 and March 1862, including copied diary entries originally made between February 13, 1862, and March 6, 1862.

This collection contains a diary and a volume of reminiscences by Gilbert Edwin Dunbar, who served with the 13th Michigan Infantry Regiment from 1862 to 1865.

The Diary (about 86 pages) commences on January 1, 1864, and chronicles Dunbar's time as an assistant quartermaster at Chattanooga, Tennessee. In brief daily entries, he wrote about loading and unloading supply ships and trains that stopped in the city, and mentioned other regiments passing through Chattanooga. He also commented on his social life, which included a visit from his father and social calls with local women. After April, he occasionally mentioned news of the war, including developments around Atlanta and related battles; he also shared his favorable opinion of General Ulysses S. Grant. Dunbar mentioned seeing a parade of African American troops on May 1, and on June 30 described a dispute with Colonel Easton, who had charged Dunbar with disobedience and neglect of duty. The final entry is dated August 31, 1864.

The Reminiscences (49 pages), written after the war, begin with a brief introduction indicating Dunbar's intent to publish his memoirs, followed by "Chapter II," which recounts the 13th Michigan Infantry Regiment's training at Camp Douglas in Kalamazoo. Dunbar described his experiences in camp and included a list of the regiment's officers (pp.5-8); after mentioning the unit's departure for Tennessee (p. 12), he copied entries from his diary, commencing on February 13, 1862, as the unit boarded railroad cars bound south through Indiana. Dunbar wrote about the rainy weather and its effect on the soldiers' marches and described the scenery in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He sought out a battlefield near Munfordville, Kentucky, where he saw the bodies of horses that had been shot during the action (p. 26). The regiment stayed in Bowling Green, Kentucky, between March 2 and 11 (pp. 29-34), and arrived in Nashville on March 13 (p. 37). The volume concludes with an entry dated April 6, 1862, as Dunbar's regiment headed toward Savannah, Tennessee.

The letters of Henry H. Willard provide a brief glimpse of his duties and experiences as a private in Company E of the 4th Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War.

The surviving Civil War letters of Henry H. Willard provide a brief glimpse of his duties and experiences in the 4th Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War. All eleven letters are addressed to his mother, and it is possible that Willard may not have been as candid with her as he might have been with another correspondent, for they are generally lacking in the "local color" of many military correspondences.

A highly literate man, Willard's letters are interesting and enjoyable. Occasionally including gossipy comments about affairs at home, they reveal comparatively little about Willard's responsibilities in the military, either as a soldier or as a functionary in the headquarters of the 14th Corps. The letters written from Kentucky during the last two months of 1862 do provide a sense of a Union cavalryman's initiation into war, including foraging for supplies, dealing with civilians, and seeing the south for the first time. A letter written in the aftermath of Stone's River (1863 January 11) includes some powerful description of the devastation of Tennessee and the grisly sights of the battlefield.

The collection includes two particularly fine letters. In the first, Willard argued that while he was prepared to employ African-Americans as laborers on fortifications, he was concerned about fitting them out for combat. The exercise, he argued, was dangerous because the south could arm ten Black men to every one at the north, and Willard was personally repelled by the thought that he might be taken prisoner and guarded by a Black man (1863 March 9). A second interesting letter, includes a good description of the progress of the Tullahoma Campaign (1863 July 6).

James Alexander Sprowl, a young man from Gibson County, Ind., enlisted in the Union army on October 21st, 1861, and was assigned to Company B of the 58th Indiana Infantry. His journal contains brief daily entries from March 26th through September 14th, 1862. Sprowl's descriptions are spare, but while lacking detail, they do give an impression of the rough edges of life in the service.

The Sprowl journal is pocket-sized and contains brief daily entries from March 26th through September 14th, 1862. Sprowl's descriptions are spare, but while lacking detail, they do give an impression of the rough edges of life in the service. The best sections in the journal are those that deal with the tense month spent in the siege of Corinth, and the much easier days of foraging through eastern and central Tennessee.