Civil War -- Kanawha County, (W. Va.)

Overview Letter by Clement Smith of Peytona, Boone County, West Virginia, a civilian, to Eliakim P. Scammon, Union General, dated 29 October 1863. Smith requests that General Scammon endorse his claim for several boats taken by Union troops in 1862. Smith writes about General William S. Rosecrans and the negative opinions of him held by the public and the press after the Battle of Chickamauga. Smith also observes that Scammon has been accused of secessionist sympathies on account of building plank...

Overview Telegram by Colonel William Henry Powell, 2nd West Virginia Cavalry, from Camp Piatt, to Captain Eli W. Botsford, 16th Ohio Infantry, dated 6 July 1863. The telegram regards the report of a scouting party concerning Confederate troop positions and recent engagements. The scouts report finding 300 Confederate cavalry and capturing a small number of men and horses. The party was also ambushed and one man was killed and another wounded. Camp Piatt occupied a location of strategic importance on...

Overview Three pocket diaries authored by William M. Goudy of Wheeling, (West) Virginia, a corporal in the First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company G, who was mustered into service on 31 October 1862. The entries run from January 1862 through November 1864, when Goudy's company was mustered out at Wheeling. Diary entries are brief and sporadic; subjects discussed include weather, marches, encampments, drilling and inspection, combat, eating, church attendance and sermons, and social visits and...