| Summary: | This diary belonged to Civil War soldier Patrick Casey from the 104th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, during the year of 1863. A large majority of the entries are written in second-person narrative form (i.e. Casey employed the pronoun “you” to refer to himself), as he recorded precise accounts of his journey across Virginia to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he served in battle and was ultimately captured by Confederate soldiers on July 01, 1863. For much of the diary, Casey meticulously detailed the distances between each new destination and provided a brief description of the tasks performed or the events that occurred throughout his travels. Notable entries include him being taken as a prisoner of war, relocating to Belle Isle Prison (referenced as “Bell Island” in text), the poor living conditions within the prison, and the questioning of his faith in the U.S Union Government for not sending help for those captured. Pages of the diary containing the following dates are missing: January 01 - 18; January 31 - February 05; November 26 - December 02; and December 21 - 31 of 1863. This diary is transcribed true to text, meaning all grammatical errors and misspellings replicate Casey’s original writing.
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