REMARKABLE 1864 CIVIL WAR DIARY AND POEM – PRIVATE EDGAR BURT, 77th NEW YORK

REMARKABLE 1864 CIVIL WAR DIARY AND POEM – PRIVATE EDGAR BURT, 77th NEW YORK

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This commercial diary by Philp and Solomons of Washington, D.C., features an accounting of virtually every day of 1864 from the perspective of Private Edgar Burt.  Edgar was 25 when he enlisted on 8/31/1862 at Saratoga Springs.  In early October, he mustered into Company E of the 77th New York. He served for the duration of the war, transferred to Company A on 11/19/1864 when losses forced the consolidation of companies, and mustered out in D.C. on 6/27/1865.

Edgar’s bound diary is leather covered with a scalloped closure tab and lined with cloth.  The lined pages are bound in the center, with logwood dyed reinforcing thread added long ago to anchor sections to the twine binding.  Given the nature of use, the small book remains in good condition with minimal superficial wear.  A folding vertical pocket inside the front cover remains functional and undamaged, with faint text stamped to the interior heavy cardstock backing (likely a manufacturing stamp). The dimensions of the cover are 4” x 6.8”, with each page measuring 3.9” x 6.2”.  Some general accounting is penciled, but each personal entry is written in rich black and blue inks with varying oxidized tones.

The first page is noted as “Edgar O. Burt’s Book / Head Quarters 2nd Div. 6th Corps”, with a partially legible note on the inside cover reading “(?) Osborn 1st Div. (?)”. After some accounting notes for various pay owed and received, he jumped right into the year with an entry on January 1st, 1864 and continued daily until December 31st.  While many entries detail camp life and the routine of soldierly duties, he recorded combat experiences in a near real-time fashion, either during action or shortly after. On May 5th, he recounts that the regiment “Marched at 6 AM and got into action about 8. Relieved 49th at 3 PM, lay in line all night. About 8 PM fired a volley while Col. was out. None hurt except Shippee (he refers to Sergeant Amasa Shippee of Company C). 61st had 118 W(ounded) 13 K(illed) 77th 4 W. / 1 K.”  On May 6th he notes “Very warm.  E relieves B at 8 AM. Hard fighting both sides of us at some distance.  At 3 fell back into a pit dug by Jersey Boys.  At 4 (PM) Rebs turned our right and had 3 fires on us. Broke us all up half the boys brought up in the 5th Corps pits.”  At Spotsylvania, he mentions being injured by a horse and joining in an assault before returning to the hospital. During June, Edgar’s entries focused on near constant maneuvering and combat.  In July, he talked of being forwarded to D.C. by ship to help check the advancing rebel threat near Fort Stevens – and mentioned seeing his first turreted Monitor and the wreckage of the USS Cumberland and USS Congress.  At Cold Harbor, he and the regiment supported the assaults of June 3rd and he “slept next to a dead man.” Petersburg was detailed across many pages as expected – with mentions of shelling, advancing, skirmishing, fortification construction, and the drudgery of attrition.  On October 13th he and the regiment were ordered to countermarch to the sound of heavy firing in Strasburg, but the highlight of his day was visiting a house and making friends with the wife of a Confederate Cavalryman and her young son “who sent my thoughts flying homeward”. Cedar Creek was detailed as a route – “woke to firing on the left and ordered to pack and get out as soon as possible” – until reaching Middletown with a pack horse from camp and the safety of the stabilizing US lines.  Each page provides gripping, and often macabre, insight into the experience of surviving the Civil War’s bloodiest year.  Going into the exacting details of each entry would prove to be quite the undertaking, but it should be well-noted that the diary as a whole provides a wealth of unique primary information.

Also included is a separate, penciled poem called “The Rolling Stone” which is written in Edgar’s hand as a multi-perspective (his and hers) expression of love to his wife.

This comprehensive diary is an extraordinary link to Edgar, the 77th New York, and many of the Civil War’s most brutal chapters.  It would be the highlight of virtually any collection or archive.   [cm][ph:L]

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