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Diary of a Yankee Engineer: The Civil War Diary of John Henry Westervelt (North's Civil War, No. 1) PDF

533 Pages·1996·3.16 MB·English
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Diary of a Yankee Engineer : The Civil War Story of John H. Westervelt, Engineer, 1st title: New York Volunteer Engineer Corps North's Civil War ; No. 1 author: Westervelt, John H.; Palladino, Anita. publisher: Fordham University Press isbn10 | asin: 0823217248 print isbn13: 9780823217243 ebook isbn13: 9780585146959 language: English Westervelt, John H.--(John Henry)--Diaries, Military engineers--New York (State)-- Rockland County--Diaries, United States.-- subject Army.--New York Engineer Regiment, 1st (1861-1865)--Biography, New York (State)- -History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives narratives publication date: 1996 lcc: E523.9.W47 1996eb ddc: 973.7/81 Westervelt, John H.--(John Henry)--Diaries, Military engineers--New York (State)-- Rockland County--Diaries, United States.-- subject: Army.--New York Engineer Regiment, 1st (1861-1865)--Biography, New York (State)- -History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives Page i Diary of a Yankee Engineer Page ii Self-portrait of John H. Westervelt. Special Collections archives, United States Military Academy, West Point. Page iii Diary of a Yankee Engineer The Civil War Story of John H. Westervelt, Engineer, 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Corps edited by Anita Palladino Fordham University Press New York 1997 Page iv Copyright © 1997 by Fordham University Press All rights reserved LC 96-42521 ISBN 0-8232-1724-8 ISSN 1089-8719 The North's Civil War, no. 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Westervelt, John H. (John Henry) Diary of a Yankee engineer: the Civil War story of John H. Westervelt, engineer, 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Corps / edited by Anita Palladino. p. cm.(The North's Civil War, ISSN 1089-8719; no. 1) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8232-1724-8 1. Westervelt, John H. (John Henry)Diaries. 2. Military engineersNew York (State)Rockland CountyDiaries. 3. United States. Army. New York Engineer Regiment, 1st (1861-1865)Biography. 4. New York (State)HistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Personal narratives. 5. United States HistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Personal narratives. 6. Rockland County (N.Y.)Biography. I. Palladino, Anita. II. Title. III. Series. E523.9.W47 1997 973.7'81dc20 96-42521 CIP Printed in the United States of America Page v This book is dedicated with love and gratitude to my step-father, "Poppa Joe" Arcaro, finder of the diary, teller of tales, and singer of songs who, I'm sure, is even now enjoying some music and a demijohn of whiskey with John Henry and my mother, Mildred Palladino Arcaro, who shared with me her love of history and uncomplainingly endured endless research trips and years of Westervelt obsession. Page vii Contents Introduction ix Acknowledgments xvii A History of the Diary and Drawings of John H. xix Westervelt Chronology xxiii Diary of a Yankee Engineer South Carolina 1 Florida 107 Virginia 129 Epilogue 255 Sources 259 Index 263 Page ix Introduction By the time the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, two hundred years had passed since the Westervelt family docked at New Amsterdam. From two brothers on board the Hoop were to descend a long line of patriots, religious and political leaders, and, in 1827, a farmer's son named John Henry Westervelt.1 Unlike some of his more renowned relatives, John lived a relatively obscure life. The little that is known about him comes, for the most part, through his own words, written in faded ink and sent in installments to his thirteen-year-old son, Frazee. This diary, on a series of tattered, yellow pages, records "such things as may come under my personal observation"2 during his service with the 1st New York Engineer Corps. John's accounts do not speak with the authority of a general and make no pretense of battlefield heroics. Yet, by his intent to write not for history, but for Frazee, his journal presents a truer vision of military life than the more often told sagas of glory. The soldier's life of relentless tedium, the fatiguing fight against the twin enemies of pestilence and illness, give us perhaps one of the "truer, if not beautiful"3 pictures of war. Early dreams of greatness depart, leaving only the voice of an ordinary man in an extraordinary time, a man who merely lived as he thought right, and died in consequence. The early life of John Westervelt is largely undocumented; both church and school records for the years involved are missing, yet his youth was undoubtedly similar to that of other farm boys in mid- nineteenth-century America. His early education was probably either at Brick Church or English 1. W. Talman Westervelt, Genealogy of the Westervelt Family (Salem, Mass.: Higginson Books, 1990), pp. 1-2. 2. Diary entry of May 8, 1864. 3. Comment written on reverse of his sketch.

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On September 8, 1962, John H. Westervelt enlisted as a private into the 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Corps. That same year, he shipped out of New York on the Star of the Southto South Carolina to fight for the North in the Civil War. The following April, he began a journal for his 13-year-old son
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