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Lot 523
General William E. Strong's Report of the Campaign Through the Carolinas. With an inscription at the end "The above and forgoing is an accurate copy of my daily journal from original manuscripts written during Genl. Sherman's campaign through the Carolinas from Beaufort to Goldsboro. Wm. E. Strong", this offering assures us of a fascinating, detailed look at Army life on campaign during one of the most decisive episodes of the Civil War.
156 pages of lined paper bound in leather covered boards with "Campaign Through the Carolinas from Beaufort to Goldsboro / Daily Journal Army Tenn." embossed in gold. A caligraphed title page indicates "Daily Journal of an Officer of the General Staff. / volume.8 part 2." There is damage to the covers, the spine is cracked with loose leather, there is minor water damage to some of the pages and the front and back several pages are toned. Pages at the front and back of the book are loose, but all are accounted for; most of the pages appear to be written in a professional hand in brown ink, but there are also eight pages in pencil in what appears to be General Strong's hand. Editing marks in pencil appear throughout, in the same hand as the other penciled pages (perhaps the General was preparing these notes for publication). In spite of the poor/fair condition of the covers and some of the pages, everything is legible and none of the pages are missing. As far as we are able to discern, these recollections were never published (there is no Library of Congress mention). General Strong frequently gave speeches about wartime events, but obviously the text here is too substantial for that purpose.
Throughout, the recollections transcribed seem frank and direct, but Strong's historical revisionism is blatant in the pages he prepared in pencil (obviously as the manuscript pages were being edited) regarding the burning of Columbia, one of the most hotly debated episodes of the War. These pages alone make this a valuable historical document: Strong's original version, "I would like to write a few words about the burning of Columbia, but I have no language to express my indignation and abhorrence. I doubty very mych if there are many people living who could write a correct account of last night's work, or paint the scene as I saw it…I pray that I many never again witness the burning and sacking of a city filled with women and children, by a drunken and infuriated soldiery…The streets of the city were filled with drunken soldiers from nearly every regiment in the entire army swearing that the town should burn…" Strong's revised pages, echo the established Union Army line that the firing of cotton bales by Confederate troops were responsible, "There is no doubt that General Wade Hamption is directly responsible for the destruction of Columbia…" and places the blame for Union depredations on the justifiably vengeful ex-prisoners of war who had just been released "…understandably they were hoping the fires would get beyond control and destroy the city where they had been sujected to such cruel and inhuman treatment." Interestingly, current scholarship posits the idea that Confederate and Union troops were both to blame -- the cotton fires did rekindle, but additional efforts by Union soldiers increased the devastation in the city.
Estimated Value $1,000-UP.
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| Realized $863 |
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