January 10, 2016:
Man, another cool Ebay item just two days after the Vanity Fair listing. This is one of the very few writings by a member of the 133rd Pa. I have ever seen. Off the top of my head it is the third, Rev. Hartsock's diary and the Nathaniel Brown letter being the other two.
I corresponded with another descendant a few years ago. I mentioned that I was frustrated that there was virtually nothing in the hand of any of the soldiers. He replied something to the effect of, "Oh, our ancestors were just farm boys, I don't think many could write." I had never thought of that! But when I did think of it I didn't think it was correct. Bell Wiley collected the letters of hundreds of CSA soldiers and the southern boys were much closer to illiteracy than the northern boys. (Some of their letters were so bad I don't know how Professor Wiley ever made them out.)
There is a difference between complete illiteracy, able only to mark an "X" as your signature, for example, and semi-literacy, able to write a little, and that poorly, and barely readable. The seller of this item writes, for instance, "This fascinating, Civil War Diary kept by a common, uneducated Private..." But he wrote! Common and uneducated though surely he was, he wrote and in this case wrote a whole diary!
For so many soldiers North and South the war was the first time they had ever been away from home. The homesickness must have been terrible and I think the southern soldiers' letters are testament to their longing. If they were able to at all, they were damn well gonna write-to their ma's and pa's and their sweethearts. For many those were surely the first letters they had ever written in their lives.
So, I think my correspondent's explanation doesn't explain it or doesn't explain it all. But given how close to illiteracy they were, how difficult it must have been for them to write, how they must have labored over it, asking their comrades for help, my friend is probably more correct than not. It was a chore for them to get off a letter and they probably didn't do it often.
I have marked this as a "watch" item but I do not think I am going to bid on it since the diary entries begin February 25, 1863 and my ancestor, Sgt. Nathan Bracken, was killed at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, hence the title of this series. For other descendants of the regiments' soldiers however, particularly those of Private Valentine Barker, this is a once-in-a-lifetime find. Here is the link to the Ebay listing and a couple of pictures. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1863-CIVIL-WAR-SOLDIERS-MANUSCRIPT-POCKET-DIARY-133RD-REGT-PENNSYLVANIA-INFANTRY-/201499664228?.
January 8, 2016:
Okay, this is the first post on the second installment. The first installment was added onto so much that it grew too big for a normal blogger post.
I found this today on Ebay:
And that sentiment is consistent with the "look" of members of the 133rd Pa. in the only photograph of any of them that I have ever found, in Washington, D.C. Eight wild and crazy guys!
Man, another cool Ebay item just two days after the Vanity Fair listing. This is one of the very few writings by a member of the 133rd Pa. I have ever seen. Off the top of my head it is the third, Rev. Hartsock's diary and the Nathaniel Brown letter being the other two.
I corresponded with another descendant a few years ago. I mentioned that I was frustrated that there was virtually nothing in the hand of any of the soldiers. He replied something to the effect of, "Oh, our ancestors were just farm boys, I don't think many could write." I had never thought of that! But when I did think of it I didn't think it was correct. Bell Wiley collected the letters of hundreds of CSA soldiers and the southern boys were much closer to illiteracy than the northern boys. (Some of their letters were so bad I don't know how Professor Wiley ever made them out.)
There is a difference between complete illiteracy, able only to mark an "X" as your signature, for example, and semi-literacy, able to write a little, and that poorly, and barely readable. The seller of this item writes, for instance, "This fascinating, Civil War Diary kept by a common, uneducated Private..." But he wrote! Common and uneducated though surely he was, he wrote and in this case wrote a whole diary!
For so many soldiers North and South the war was the first time they had ever been away from home. The homesickness must have been terrible and I think the southern soldiers' letters are testament to their longing. If they were able to at all, they were damn well gonna write-to their ma's and pa's and their sweethearts. For many those were surely the first letters they had ever written in their lives.
So, I think my correspondent's explanation doesn't explain it or doesn't explain it all. But given how close to illiteracy they were, how difficult it must have been for them to write, how they must have labored over it, asking their comrades for help, my friend is probably more correct than not. It was a chore for them to get off a letter and they probably didn't do it often.
I have marked this as a "watch" item but I do not think I am going to bid on it since the diary entries begin February 25, 1863 and my ancestor, Sgt. Nathan Bracken, was killed at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, hence the title of this series. For other descendants of the regiments' soldiers however, particularly those of Private Valentine Barker, this is a once-in-a-lifetime find. Here is the link to the Ebay listing and a couple of pictures. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1863-CIVIL-WAR-SOLDIERS-MANUSCRIPT-POCKET-DIARY-133RD-REGT-PENNSYLVANIA-INFANTRY-/201499664228?.
January 8, 2016:
Okay, this is the first post on the second installment. The first installment was added onto so much that it grew too big for a normal blogger post.
I found this today on Ebay:
Heh-heh-heh-heh.
