Newberry Library - Diary entry, Colby, Carlos near Fort Blakely, AL (account of the siege of Fort Blakely, written after the siege of Fort Bl..., Carlos W. Colby Carlos Colby, Mar. 19-Apr. 7, 1865

Diary entry, Colby, Carlos near Fort Blakely, AL (account of the siege of Fort Blakely, written after the siege of Fort Bl..., Carlos W. Colby Carlos Colby, Mar. 19-Apr. 7, 1865

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Open book Carlos Colby diary entry near Fort Blakely, AL (account of the siege of Fort Blakely), Mar. 19-Apr. 7, 1865

Title Diary entry, Colby, Carlos near Fort Blakely, AL (account of the siege of Fort Blakely, written after the siege of Fort Bl..., Carlos W. Colby Carlos Colby, Mar. 19-Apr. 7, 1865

Creator Colby, Carlos W., 1837-1922

Date Mar. 19-Apr. 7, 1865

Place Alabama--Fort Blakely, Illinois, Illinois--Camp Butler, Mississippi--Jackson, Missouri

Language English

Subjects United States, Military hospitals, Soldiers, Transportation, Military, Jackson, Battle of, Jackson, Miss., 1863, Brothers and sisters, Parent and adult child, Racism, Soldiers' writings, American

Description Primarily correspondence (129 letters) of Illinois farmer and Civil War soldier Carlos W. Colby, written between 1862 and 1865, to his sisters, brother, brother-in-law, and niece, plus a dozen Civil War letters written by Colby’s future brother-in-law James Rowe. Also includes Colby’s reminiscences of his boyhood and his service in the 97th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, some family correspondence, genealogical material and a few photos.

User-Contributed Transcription fighting capturing 1 General (Mortaly wounded) 1 Col. 1 Maj. and 150 men. The showe signs of hard fighting and a hasty retreat on the part of the Rebs. it being strewn with Knapsacks, Haversacks, Guns and any and everything that would impede their flight. 26th The Inft. of the 2nd Brg crossed the river as soon as they could see, and mad a forced march to Pollard, a small town at the junction of the Montgomery and Mobile with the Blakely and Pollard R.R. where we had heard there was a small rebel force. By some means our Col. always succeeds in getting the 97 in the advance when there is a prospect of a fight. The town was surrounded and the whole force advanced on it at once, but there was nary [previous word underlined] Reb there, hearing of our advance they had Skedadeled. [previous word underlined] after destroying the R.R. track for some distance and burning several public buildings we returned to our Division. In the Rebels retreat they had destroyed the main road bridge over the river so that we had to cross on the stringers of the R.R. Bridge and only footman could pass. One peculiarity of this country is that hills after rising on elevation of an hundred feet, water can be found within two, or three feet of the surface, and in many places flows over the top of the ground. 27th We have now changed our direction and are marching towards Blakely Our Regt is train guard It rained all day did not get into camp until near Mid Night, and then made only about twelve miles. We are now reduced to half rations Considerable being thrown away from waggons that broke down The slowness of our movements, and Prisoners being fed make it nessary to economise. 28 The 97 in the advance of the Div. marched twelve miles and went into camp early 29th marched ten miles was rear guard to the train passed through one swamp that had to be corderoyed for three miles dureing the day over five miles of corderoy had to be made commenced raining at noon and rained all the after noon and at night it fell in torrents completely flooding the camp. Nelson Godwin of Co G died from the effects of an accidental wound recived yesterday from the falling of a tree

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Carlos W. Colby papers

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Colby Box 2 Folder 124

BibID 991758318805867

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 2794px × 3540px 28.32 MB

File Created 02/11/2025

Filename 991758318805867_midwest_ms_colby_box_002_fl_0124_001-0.tif

Unique Identifier NL12OCWF

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