Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Benjamin F. Coogle, Union Soldier, Civil War Diary, A&M 3800, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Scope and Contents

One diary kept by Second Lieutenant Benjamin F. Coogle of Company A, 6th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Sunday Soldiers, a unit stationed along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Grafton and Piedmont, West Virginia. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on 22 September 1864; he was discharged 10 June 1865.

There are entries for the period 12 September 1864 through 14 June 1865; these entries were recorded into a published 1863 diary, so the earliest entries begin toward the end of the diary from September to December, and the latest appear at the beginning from January to June. Days of the week are crossed out and new ones written in to conform to the calendar year. Between June and September are miscellaneous entries for the years 1871 and 1872, and also miscellaneous accounting records of debits and/or credits.

Entries are generally short and succinct. They include references to weather, health, drilling, scouting, inactivity, homesickness, and other routines and events. More specifically, there are entries regarding the deaths of William Russel and Samuel Vincent (19 January 1865), sleigh riding (25 January 1865), entertainment (24 February 1865), a scouting mission and capture of three rebels (29 March 1865), and a "funeral" for President Lincoln (19 April 1865). Events of national significance are noticed and recorded too, such as the surrender of General Lee, the assassination of Lincoln, the death of Booth, and the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Information regarding the "Sixth Regiment West Virginia Infantry" can be found in chapter 35 in the book "Loyal West Virginia" authored by Theodore F. Lang.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War - West Virginia 6th Infantry, Company A.
• Coogle, Benjamin F.