American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

3 1/8 x 4 7/8 in. leather pocket calendar diary for the year 1861 with entries written for every date and additional entries written in the "Memoranda" section. (Some staining to pages, most pages nearly fully separated from binding). Original leather covers with embossing "Diary 1861" above closure tab (binding nearly fully separated along spine, with surface wear and loss to leather pieces including closure loop). Front free endpaper with identification, "J.B. Parks / Jan. 10th 1861." -- 3 5/8 x 5 in. leather pocket calendar diary for the year 1862 with entries written for every date and additional entries and inscriptions in the "Memoranda" section. (Light toning to pages). Original leather covers with gilt device bearing incorrect date, "Diary 1861" above closure tab and integral pocket (surface wear to leather including some separation and loss). Front free endpaper with identification, "J. Bratton Parks / J.B. Parks / Leechburg, Armstrong County...Company C 139 Regt P.V."  -- Together, 2 diaries. 

[With:] NORRIS, Joseph W. Autograph note signed ("J.W. Norris, Lieut Co C 139th Pa Vols Comm'd"). "Camp near White Church Va," 8 February 1863. 8 x 5 in. (significant loss and full separation to creases with adhesive repair, wear to edges and corners, staining throughout). Pass permitting James Parks to proceed to and from "Belleplain landing." Approved and signed by Frederick H. Collier as colonel of the 139th PA.

[Also with:] 4 7/8 x 3 7/8 silver gelatin photograph on cardstock mount, with pencil inscription on mount verso reading, "Back view Parks house in Penna." -- 2 3/8 x 3 5/8 in. snapshot featuring a young World War II-era soldier, identified on verso as "Son. W.R. Parks, Midvale, RD.I - Box 490 Utah." Verso also bears handstamp "Press Printing Co. / Montrose, Colo." Subject is likely William R. Parks (b. ca 1916). -- 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. snapshot of another (possibly the same) World War II-era soldier, with penciled inscription on verso reading, "Parks family." -- Together, 3 photographs related to the Parks family.

[Also with:] Revised Report of the Select Committee Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Together with the Accompanying Documents, as Reported to the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: Singerly & Myers, State Printers, 1865. 8vo. (Staining, some chipping to page edges.) Original brown cloth boards (surface wear, staining, significant separation to binding).  

Provenance: Ex-James Frasca (consignor note).

While James B. Parks would enlist 
as a private on 1 September 1862, his first diary featured here covers the year prior, in which Parks attended and taught school, attended church services, worked on his family farm, built a home from the foundation up, watched his brothers die at home, and saw his friends march off to war. Both of his brothers got sick with a sore throat and died a little over a month apart. He writes of John's death quite graphically in an entry dated 20 October: "John died a few minutes past 1 o'clock this morning. the floam caused by the sore throat gathered in his throat and strangled him, he was buried this afternoon." 

Parks spends much of the first 8 months of the year 1862 participating in many of the same activities, working around the farm, attending prayer meetings, etc. In September, on the same day he enlists, Parks is mustered into Company C of the 139th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment was almost immediately sent to the Bull Run battlefield to bury the dead. On 7 September he writes, "...I went along and helped to bury four. Our company burried (sic) 147 men. They were so rotten they could not be moved, The dirt was just throwed over them. I was sick all day..." 

While the regiment did not participate in Antietam, it was present. On the day of battle, 17 September, Parks writes, "Gen Howe's Brigade came along from Harpers Ferry. We joined with them and marched very fast till after eight oclock when we stopped for the night..." The following day, he writes, "We marched this morning up the road to a small town, lay there awhile when Gen McClelland (sic) came down the road with a division, we fell in behind him and marched to the battle field where Antietam they are fighting now, we lay in a file all day...Our regiment was called into line of battle this evening when we were cooking supper, and are now lieing (sic) in that position..."

The regiment was also present at the Battle of Fredericksburg, attached to the 3rd brigade, 3rd division, VI Corps. In his entry for 12 December, Parks records, "We crossed the Rhappahannock (sic) below Fredericksburg and formed divisions and closed in mass, stacked arms and lay till after dinner, when the rebels commenced shelling us. they wounded two men in the 98th P.V...." His entry for the following day continues, "We were taken out in the afternoon and placed in the third or fourth line of battle...the men lay in the ditches. They shelled us this evening right smart for awhile but no one was hurt. Wm. Fiscus was wounded in the knee before we moved..."

One of the most poignant parts of Parks' diary is his entry for 25 December 1862, the last Christmas Day he would see: "Christmas day it is very different from any christmas I ever seen, and it is to be hoped that long ere another one comes that this war will be over, and we will be home to enjoy it with our friends instead of being a soldier in our countrys cause." 

Though not recorded in the diaries featured here, Parks and his regiment would go on to engage heavily at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg (Marye's Heights), and thereafter at Gettysburg. Parks was wounded in his left leg at the battle on 3 July, and died of his wounds on 9 August at Letterman Hospital. He is buried at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.