Diary of an Enlisted Man: the Recollections of a Union Soldier of 'Bostwicks Tigers, ' 128th New York Volunteers During the American Civil War

by Lawrence Van Alstyne

A valuable American Civil War diary This substantial diary of a Union soldier serving with a New York infantry regiment benefits from its author's talent for observation. Diary entries were made frequently and regularly, sometimes on more than one occasion during the course of a day, and this provides the reader with what amounts to reportage of a conflict which was fought not too long after the professional reporter became a regular feature of campaign and camp in the nineteenth century. Van Alstyne was a man committed to the preservation of the Union and his views on the subject of slavery, probably because his family had once been slave owners, are initially ambivalent. The 128th New York Volunteers (nicknamed 'Old Steady') took part in the siege of Port Hudson, the Red River Expedition, Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign and many other notable engagements. Eventually Van Alstyne earned a commission and went on to command a regiment of freed slaves from Louisiana.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

Reviews

[Sarah Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't record reading habits, practices, or tastes but a detailed account of camp life.

[Evil Klown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a day to day journal of a guy in the civil war. Mostly down around New Orleans and surrounds. I enjoyed it.

[Laura Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It seems to me it is a serious sort of business I have engaged in." A young man goes to war in 1862 and determines to keep a diary even it if means he can't go right to sleep. He sends the diary in sections back to his parents, and there it remains in a drawer until our author pulls it out some 40 years later and decides it would be worth publishing. I thought it would be deadly dull but discovered a man with a wit and ability to turn a phrase that kept my interest to the end. What it highlights is the remarkable inefficiency and ineptitude of those in charge. March here, wait several weeks, march back to where you started, wait there several weeks...and so on. What frustration. When the guns start firing it still has the confusion of knowing where the line is and what's going on in all the smoke. A good read and a good lesson to learn.