Lemuel Abbott - Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864

The following Diary covering the interesting period of the Civil War from January 1, to December 31, 1864, and a portion of 1865 to the surrender of General R. E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Va., was kept by the Author at the age of twenty-two when an officer of the Tenth Regiment Vermont Volunteer Infantry, Third and First Brigade, Third Division, Third and Sixth Corps respectively, Army of the Potomac, and is a brief war history as seen by a young soldier literally from the front line of battle during General U. S. Grant's celebrated campaign from the Rapidan River to Petersburg, Va., and Gen. P. H. Sheridan's famous Shenandoah Valley campaign in the summer and fall of 1864. During this time the Author passed from the grades of Second to First Lieutenant and Captain, and commanded in the meantime in different battles five or more companies in his regiment which afforded an excellent opportunity to make a fairly interesting general diary of the fighting qualities of his regiment and especially of the companies which he commanded during that most interesting period of the Civil War when the backbone of the Rebellion was broken, which, together with Sherman and Thomas' cooperations led to the surrender of General R. E. Lee at Appomattox C. H. April 9, 1865.

For thirty-eight years the diary remained closed, and indeed had been forgotten by the Author until he accidentally ran across it one day in an old chest, when on leave of absence in Vermont, where it had been placed after the war by someone for safe keeping, the Author in the meantime having been an officer in the regular army many years and honored with the degree of B. S. by his Alma Mater on account of his supposed accomplishments in military science after many years of hard service, a large portion of which was on the frontier among the Indians whose civilization was finally largely brought about through his recommendation to educate all the Indian children throughout the United States, about 1877-9, when he was considered an expert on the Indian question both by the War and Interior Departments.

On reviewing the diary with the eye of an expert, it was found so uniquely interesting on account of the many dramatic situations simply given in a youth's unpretentious way that, from the fact it contained so much of interest to the surviving men whom the Author was honored in and fortunate enough to command during such a historic period, and especially to the kinsmen of those who have passed along to the higher life, he concluded to publish it in full.

It is not pretended that it is based on any official general orders but is solid fact and experience simply told by a young soldier who stood up to the rack in the front line of battle and took uncomplainingly whatever was in store for him, steadily refusing to accept whatever was offered which would remove him from the line of battle to a safer place at home or in the rear because he not only preferred to occupy a place in the front line of battle in command of men, which he considered the most honorable place for a soldier in the army at such a time, but because he had grown sincerely attached to the brave men in the different companies and detachments he commanded which comprised the whole regiment and some in others who not infrequently by reason of superior physical endurance and courage led and inspired him in some of the most noted battles of ancient or modern times.

A diary was kept during a portion of 1865 to the close of the war, but its whereabouts if preserved are unknown to the Author; so that in 1865, only a few of the most strikingly dramatic scenes and battles are given in the addenda as the curtain was falling on the greatest civil conflict of modern times, one of the most impressive of which was General Grant's magnificent bearing as he rode at a goodly pace, silently with his retinue, along among his men inside the enemy's works after they had been captured by the celebrated fighting Sixth Army Corps which he had specially selected, as it was said at the time, to break the enemy's line at the point where it was broken in front of Petersburg, on the morning of the memorable Second of April, 1865. This and other startling and unexpected scenes crowded each other so closely the following week they are indelibly photographed on the mind of the writer never probably to be forgotten so long as time shall last; and they are not overdrawn as no pen is sufficiently graphic to anywhere near do the subject justice.

Had there been an artist on the ground to have seen Grant as he then appeared, the very ideal of a silent, unassuming yet stern-looking, determined and dignified conquering hero, who could have reproduced the scene on canvas, his fame would have been established, for the writer never saw him to better advantage nor could anyone else, as the occasion and surroundings were all there, never to be again exactly repeated in any gigantic struggle, i. e. the great battlefield studded with unusually extensive, silent, deserted and partially dismantled, formidable earthworks and military camps, shattered, abandoned and captured ordnance, the defeated, struggling and straggling enemy, the prisoners of war, the wounded, dead and dying, the shocking sight of carnage, and last, but not least, the victorious army headed by its intrepid but humane big-hearted leader – Grant. It would be a historic picture before which the civilized world would pause entranced; it was grandly impressive beyond description. As an entrancing, dramatic incident, the surrender of Lee, a few days later at Appomattox Court House, sinks into insignificance.

The reader is cautioned not to expect too much from this unpretentious diary, as some parts were frequently written by the light of a camp fire or blazing pine knot, sitting on the ground, and generally by a worn-out and greatly exhausted young soldier with no expectation of ever publishing it; and besides, frequently there was very little room or time to write much, so that on important occasions there was no opportunity for entering into details, and especially when shot and shell were whizzing and screeching overhead almost as thick as bees about a hive. Some of it while on sick leave of absence in Vermont on account of wounds, will not probably greatly interest the average reader, but as much of historic interest is frequently given in connection with the killed, wounded, etc., during this time, after due consideration it has been thought best to leave none of it out, and so it has all been printed. It may possibly aid the future historian and genealogist, too, which is another reason why the diary has been published.

It is only by gathering up the fragments from eye witnesses which is too frequently ignored by military historians with the time and opportunity to do such work thoroughly, that a fully rounded out regimental or other war history can be written. The blue pencil is too frequently used by unscientific military historians to get the best results. The opinions of accomplished shirks in battle, because it does not happen to be generally known they were such, having tact enough to cover it up, and of those not versed in military science or with too much honesty and unbiased judgment, are too frequently accepted instead of solid fact as seen by others of reliability, though obscure, who were intrepid enough to at least be with the most courageous of their men who were generally in the vanguard of any assaulting column and frequently individually led it.

But some who write war history unfamiliar with such experiences, can never know of the inspiration and strength that comes to one in command of any part of an assaulting column of grandly brave, undaunted men, or what it is to feel that he is the very point of the wedge of his part of an assaulting column which is perhaps the first to cleave the enemy's line, and that he is conscientiously doing without any thought of shirking whatever he finds before him to do because it isn't his nature to be otherwise.