Title: Diary of Francis W. Knowles

Identifier: 0164-b1   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/27481)

Description: Diary of Francis W. Knowles, written while serving in Company B of the 36th Massachusetts Volunteers from 1862 to 1865. It was rewritten in the years 1885-86 and illustrated with maps and sketches. The diary records the activities of Knowles, who was mainly a clerk, as he participated with the IX Corps at Fredericksburg (December 1862), in the District of Indiana and Michigan (June-September 1863), the Knoxville Campaign (November-December 1863), the Wilderness campaign (May 1864), the Spotsylvania Courthouse campaign (May 1864), at Cold Harbor (June 3-4 1864), and in the Petersburg campaign (June, 1864-April 1865). Entries of interest include a description of camp life at Camp Wool in Massachusetts (August 1862), the activities of the Confederate raider John Morgan in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana (June-July 1863), and the activities of the Knights of the Golden Circle in Kentucky (September-November 1863). The diary also includes a report by General Edwin V. Sumner of the Battle of Fredericksburg in which he commanded the Right Grand Division, a newspaper clipping entitled "The last night of Fredericksburg" by Joshua L. Chamberlain, autographs of Ambrose B. Burnside, Lewis Richmond, and John G. Parke, maps of the various campaigns in which Knowles participated, battlefield sketches, and field orders. Knowles was mustered out of the army in June of 1865. 190 pages.