American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Leather pocket diary for the year 1862, 122pp, 3 x 5 3/4 in. (heavy wear to cover, flap and closure no longer extant, some dampstaining but entries remain legible). Daily diary entries in a 3 per-page format with 4 pp of "Memoranda." Twice inscribed on interior "E.N. Howard." Diary includes references to the Battle of Harrisonburg, Battle of Cross Keys, Battle of South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

Howard served in Co. I, the "McKean Rifles," under Captain William T. Blanchard, whose company of riflemen formed part of the legendary Pennsylvania "Bucktails." Early diary entries from Virginia mostly describe picket duty, camp life, drill, weather, etc., and include references to officers such as Thomas L. Kane and Hugh McNeil. In May 1862 companies C, G, H and I were placed under the command of Lt. Col. Kane and attached to Bayard's Cavalry Brigade. As part of this detachment Howard participated in the June 6-7 Battle of Harrisonburg, writing on the 6th: "The Col. of the 1st New Jersey Cavalry taken prisoner & we ordered out & had a hard battle lost Col. Kane & Capt. Taylor." Two days letter his company is engaged at the Battle of Cross Keys, after which only 40 men remained in the ranks. Howard was sick for the battle, and remained behind.

After the regiment is reunited in September 1862, it participated in the Battle of South Mountain, noting on the 14th, "Get up at three o'clock and start before sunrise go through Frederick and Middleton the rebels burnt a bridge, barn and blacksmith shop attacked the rebs about 4 o'clock and drove them clear off the field." Two days later at the Battle of Antietam Howard was engaged and the regiment's Col. McNeil was mortally wounded, a fact noted in the diary. From there the regiment moved back into Virginia and in mid-December 1862 participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Here on 13 December, Howard is wounded: "Skirmishing along the picket lines we are relieved and support a battery then make an advance I am wounded in the arm the battle rages fiercely all day and in the evening."

[With:] CDV standing portrait of a Union soldier wearing kepi and sack coat. Verso with later period pencil notation "Grandfather" and backmark of Rehn & Sons, Philadelphia. There are no visible indications of the soldier having an affiliation with a "Bucktail" regiment such as a deer tail attached to a cap, though the CDV was acquired with the Howard diary and other papers. -- Discharge for Elijah N. Howard, from the 190th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 12 August 1864. -- Marriage certificate of Elijah N. Howard and Nancy E. Pitkin, 1 November 1865.

Elijah Newell Howard (1840-1904) was born in New York but resided in McKean County, Pennsylvania, as of the 1860 US Census. HDS indicates that he enlisted on 8/13/1861 as a private and mustered into Co. I, Pennsylvania 42nd Infantry. He was listed as wounded 12/13/1862 at Fredericksburg, VA, and mustered out on 6/11/1864 at Harrisburg, PA.