Civil War Diary: Diary of a Forty-Niner
Hartford, Conn. Allis, 1929. First Edition. A Tribute for Country, Its Resources and Its Morale. Gift INSCRIPTION by the author's daughter, Anna Chapman Allis to her cousin, Mrs. Flossie Chapman Phelps. First Edition. 8vo. 115, [1], 16 pages, [1] leaf photographic plate. Carl F. Price assisted in the editorial preparation of each volume. Dark blue cloth with gilt lettering to front board. Some loss of gilt to lettering; a near fine copy of a scarce title. Item #17434
Chapman (1826 - 1910) was in Company C, United States Army 20th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment. His great-grandfather, Abraham Willey, was in the Revolutionary Army; he was on 'The Lexington Alarm List' in April, 1775. Chapman enlisted on August 6, 1862 serving with marked gallantry as corporal until his discharge on June 13, 1865. His regiment was engaged in many of the most important battles, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Later he followed Sherman 'to the sea,' tramped through the Carolinas and across Virginia to Richmond. In his own words, Chapman indicates he kept the diary as he had time and opportunity to write..."while I was engaged in fighting the battles of our country and trying to help put down that gigantic and wisked rebellion..." The events in the diary "...were written from time to time, with pencil, on scraps of paper and blank parts of envelopes." Later, he connected them as printed in the first 115 pages of this book. The remaining 16 pages is his diary which he kept during a journey to California in 1849 along with a company of 76 New Englanders in search of gold. They were known as the Fremont Mining and Trading Company. The contents of his diary cover the voyage taken around Cape Horn, via Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso, to San Francisco in Oct. 1849. The diary abruptly ends and Chapman's forays into gold mining are not known; records do indicate he lived in El Dorado, California in 1850.
Price: $750.00