0 Linear Feet, Summary: 3 reels of microfilm (38 vols)
Creator
Mugler, Henri Jean
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown,
WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Language
English
Abstract
Diary and memoir of a Confederate soldier, railroad laborer, and shop owner from Grafton. The memoir begins with Mugler's
birth in Alsace-Lorraine in 1838, and covers his immigration to the United States; enlistment in the United States Army in
1851; military duty in New York, Boston, Rhode Island, Texas, California, and the Washington Territory where he participated
in the expedition against the Yakima Indians as a member of Company B, Third Regiment, United States Artillery, under Phil
Sheridan; and his return to Orange County, Virginia, where following the passage of the Secession Ordinance he enlisted in
the Thirteenth Virginia Infantry serving as chief musician. The memoir concludes with Mugler's military career during 1861-1862.
The diary covers the remainder of his military service, 1862-1864, and his confinement as a war prisoner at Elmira, New York,
1864-1865. Following the war, Mugler returned to Washington, D.C., and eventually gained employment with the National Cemetery
Corps, working at various Virginia battlefields. While in Virginia he served as a delegate to the Virginia Republican Convention
of 1867. He worked at the National Cemetery at Grafton and for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, eventually becoming superintendent
of painters on the Road Division in West Virginia. After 1874 he worked briefly as a self-employed painter, and then opened
a paint and hardware store in Grafton which he managed until the end of his life. Subjects include the Battle of Mine Run,
the retreat from Antietam, the Battle of the Wilderness, prison life at Elmira, New York; reconstruction in Virginia; railroading
and the railroad towns of Keyser, Oakland (Maryland), Parkersburg, Fairmont, and Wheeling; the strikes of 1877; interviews
with Generals Ord and Sheridan; the Murphy Temperance Movement and W.C.T.U. activities; the Liberal Republican movement of
1872; the Greenback Party; the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; political figures such as John S. Carlile, John G. Carlisle,
John T. McGraw, John W. Mason, Frank Hereford, John E. Kenna, John A. Logan, James G. Blaine, and "Sockless" Jerry Simpson.
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], Henri Jean Mugler Diary and Memoir, A&M 1335, West Virginia and Regional
History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Loaned for duplication by Mrs. L. B. [Dorothy W.] Cardot, 1960