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[Illustration: MAJOR L. A. ABBOTT, U. S. A.

THE AUTHOR.

_Clinedinst, Washington, D. C._]




  PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
  AND
  CIVIL WAR DIARY

  1864

  By
  MAJOR LEMUEL ABIJAH ABBOTT, U. S. A.
  Late Captain 10th Regt. Vt. Vol. Infantry

  BURLINGTON:
  FREE PRESS PRINTING CO.
  PRINTERS, BINDERS, STATIONERS.
  1908.




  DEDICATION.


  TO THE PATRIOTS AND COMRADES
  OF ONE OF VERMONT'S MOST GALLANT REGIMENTS,
  THE TENTH VERMONT VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
  MAY ITS STATE PRIDE,
  FIDELITY, _esprit de corps_ AND SPLENDID RECORD IN
  THE CIVIL WAR SERVE AS AN EXAMPLE AND
  INSPIRATION TO COMING GENERATIONS.




PREFACE


The following Diary covering the interesting period of the Civil
War from January 1, to December 31, 1864, and a portion of 1865 to
the surrender of General R. E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Va.,
was kept by the Author at the age of twenty-two when an officer
of the Tenth Regiment Vermont Volunteer Infantry, Third and First
Brigade, Third Division, Third and Sixth Corps respectively, Army of
the Potomac, and is a brief war history as seen by a young soldier
literally from the front line of battle during General U. S. Grant's
celebrated campaign from the Rapidan River to Petersburg, Va., and
Gen. P. H. Sheridan's famous Shenandoah Valley campaign in the
summer and fall of 1864. During this time the Author passed from
the grades of Second to First Lieutenant and Captain, and commanded
in the meantime in different battles five or more companies in
his regiment which afforded an excellent opportunity to make a
fairly interesting general diary of the fighting qualities of his
regiment and especially of the companies which he commanded during
that most interesting period of the Civil War when the backbone of
the Rebellion was broken, which, together with Sherman and Thomas'
cooperations led to the surrender of General R. E. Lee at Appomattox
C. H. April 9, 1865.

For thirty-eight years the diary remained closed, and indeed had
been forgotten by the Author until he accidentally ran across it
one day in an old chest, when on leave of absence in Vermont, where
it had been placed after the war by someone for safe keeping, the
Author in the meantime having been an officer in the regular army
many years and honored with the degree of B. S. by his Alma Mater on
account of his supposed accomplishments in military science after
many years of hard service, a large portion of which was on the
frontier among the Indians whose civilization was finally largely
brought about through his recommendation to educate all the Indian
children throughout the United States, about 1877-9, when he was
considered an expert on the Indian question both by the War and
Interior Departments.

On reviewing the diary with the eye of an expert, it was found so
uniquely interesting on account of the many dramatic situations
simply given in a youth's unpretentious way that, from the fact
it contained so much of interest to the surviving men whom the
Author was honored in and fortunate enough to command during such
a historic period, and especially to the kinsmen of those who have
passed along to the higher life, he concluded to publish it in full.

It is not pretended that it is based on any official general orders
but is solid fact and experience simply told by a young soldier
who stood up to the rack in the front line of battle and took
uncomplainingly whatever was in store for him, steadily refusing to
accept whatever was offered which would remove him from the line of
battle to a safer place at home or in the rear because he not only
preferred to occupy a place in the front line of battle in command
of men, which he considered the most honorable place for a soldier
in the army at such a time, but because he had grown sincerely
attached to the brave men in the