“Daily Pocket Remembrancer for 1862”. Published by J.G. & Haw & Co., New York. Black leather diary, 5 x 3.25”, w/lined entries & fold-over flap. Exhibits wear and rubbing extremities, slightly split spine hear the head, left and right. Fold-over flap is torn, w/small piece missing from upper rear cover. Text slightly yellowed, with entries in light pencil, which remain entirely legible. Else VG. Inscription inside front cover in ink & pencil: “John C Zollinger / Commissary Dept. / 6^th Division / Com. G  65^th Reg O.V.M.”.

John C. Zollinger, born in 1842 in Sandusky, OH, was mustered in as a Private in Co. G”, 65^th Ohio Infantry, 10/3/ 1861, and later promoted as follows: Quarter Master Sergeant, 5/29/1862; 1^st Lieut., Co. “K”, 8/13/1864; Regimental Quarter Master, filed and staff, 2/13/1865. Mustered out at Victoria, TX, 10/30/1865. His 65^th Ohio, was mustered in Mansfield, OH, Oct/Nov. 1861. It served with the Army of the Ohio & the Army of the Cumberland throughout the war, participating in the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth (April & May, 1862), the battles of Stones’ River and Chickamauga (Jan. & Sept. 1863), the 1864 Atlanta Campaign (Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Jonesboro, Siege of Atlanta), and Nashville Campaign (Battles of Franklin & Nashville). Later garrisoned at Huntsville, AL, 65^th Ohio moved to New Orleans, and thence to San Antonio, TX, where it mustered out, 11/30/1865. During service it lost 122 men killed and mortally wounded, and 135 by disease for a total of 257.

Zollinger’s diary provides continuous entries from May 2 to June 4, a period corresponding with the siege of Corinth, MS, an important Union objective in the wake of the Battle of Shiloh. Seizure of this key Confederate railroad hub would set up the later capture of Vicksburg. Zollinger is called before his colonel to receive his appointment on May 29^th, then on the 31^st records news of the Confederate evacuation of Corinth. Further entries cover June 11-16, June 24-28, July 1-5.

Though the diary covers but a brief stretch 65^th Ohio service, they nonetheless convey an accurate of a sense of the slow, plodding Union advance on Corinth, with the regiment exchanging place in the picket lines with the 57^th Indiana and 3^rd Ohio, while quartermaster Zollinger is continually on the move with his wagon, distributing supplies among various companies strung out on the march, a march that continues as Continuing on as the 65^th moves on through Corinth to Iuka toward Tuscumbia and Decatur, AL on the line of Mobile and Charleston Railroad. Zollinger records sounds of skirmishes and cannonading, while taking some time off to cook up donuts—May 15—“In camp all day. Johnny and myself made some doughnuts in the afternoon, which made us think of home as they were excellent.”

The front pages of the diary contain listings of supplies, financial details, and the names of several 65^th Ohio soldiers, some of them dating from !864. Among soldiers mentioned are Col. Young O. Moss, Lt. Hinman, Lt. Ellis, Lt. Mathias, quartermaster Asa M. Trimble, and Captain Jacob Christophel, killed in action at Stones River, 12/31/1862.

Also included is a lengthy entry, in ink, that reveals Quartermaster Zollinger as a connoisseur of “good looking” southern ladies. To wit:

“I became acquainted, took dinner, and had a pleasant time in general with three good looking young Ladies, who were full blooded…There names were Molly Hardin and Molly Windham. The one professes to be a Union Girl. Molly Hardin told me she had lover in the Rebel Army whose name I have forgotten. The last she heard of him he was at Mobile, ala, in and Engineer Corps. I promised the young beauty if I come across him, I would treat him well. Tell him I had seen her, and that she often thinks of him and hopes that when they clean out the Yankees, he will come home and marry her. I told her I was afraid he would never come if he waited until the Yankees were cleaned out…..These Southern Beauties use Snuff; not by sniffing as our old nuns in the North do, but actually chew it…of a very filthy practice, and I told them they would be considered so were they up North, by the aristocracy. The Union Girl’s name is Molly Colville a very quiet girl. Take it altogether, the Molly’s were quite interesting companions for a Soldier lad.” (Was there ever an Ohioan as chivalrous down South as quartermaster Zollinger of the 65^th? Probably not.)

Though brief, the quality of Zollinger’s entries and the caliber of his service, in regiment that went the distance (participating at Shiloh, Stones’ River, Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Frankfort and Nashville) make it a superb collectible. 65^th Ohio descendants and Ohio regimental aficionados take note.

Zollinger died in Sandusky, OH in 1924 and is buried there in Oakland Cemetery.  Invites further research. Accompanied by a brief amount of internet research material.  [jp/ld]

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