Title: Transcript of Joseph Kinsey's diary

Identifier: 0063-b1-fa   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/57042)

Description: Transcript of a diary written by Confederate officer Joseph Kinsey from prison. Joseph Kinsey (1843-1928) was a noted Lenoir County, N.C., educator. He taught school and studied at Trinity College before entering the Confederate Army in March of 1862. After being captured in 1863, he was imprisoned at Johnson's Island in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, until after the collapse of the Confederacy. The diary gives a brief account of Kinsey's service before being captured near Charleston, S.C., in August of 1863. The bulk of the volume describes life in prison on Johnson's Island, including reports of prisoner escapes, weather conditions, deaths, morale problems, the availability of newspapers, Union propaganda, battle rumors, prisoner exchanges, and his train trip back to North Carolina after the surrender of General Lee. Also included for 1865 and 1866 are diary entries reflecting his return to school teaching in rural North Carolina and listing the students attending his school. Of particular interest near the end of the diary is a sketch written by Captain Simeon E. Hamilton of the Choctaw Cavalry. Hamilton, a prisoner with Kinsey at Johnson's Island, chastises whites for their attitude toward the Indians and describes the advanced living standards of the Choctaw people.