Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

David Probert Papers, 1863-1871, Accession #10776, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased from Charles Apfelbaum of Valley Stream, New York, on August 10, 1988.

Biographical/Historical Information

David Probert (1836?--?) resided in Jersey City and Patterson, New Jersey. He was employed in Tennessee by the Quartermaster Department of the District of Nashville as a carpenter from January 31 to April 1, 1864. Probert received an honorable discharge and eventually was hired by the Bridge Department of the United States Military Railroads in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 4, 1864 at the rate of $2.40 per day. During the period of his diary Probert was employed primarily at Alexandria and City Point. Accidentally injured in the leg on May 18, he resigned in October, 1864 to return to his home for recuperation. On November 21, 1864 he was hired by the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ten items, 1864-1869, a manuscript diary and miscellaneous papers pertaining to David Probert of Patterson, New Jersey, a carpenter employed by the United States Military Railroads in Virginia during the Civil War. The diary itself is a small bound volume ("Diary 1864") of approximately forty pages. Researchers should note that several entries were not recorded on the appropriate daily page; a sequence guideline has been appended to this guide.

The diary's entries are for the period of May 2 to September 1, 1864. The entries (which are brief due to space limitations inherent with the volume) discuss Probert's work and off-duty activities near or in Alexandria, Falmouth, Bell Plains, City Point, Mill Point, Fort Monroe, Aquia Creek, Petersburg, and the Appomattox River. He also mentions structures for he was assigned to repair (Long Bridge, Potomac Creek Bridge, Weldon Railroad) and the battles of Globe Tavern [also known as Weldon Railroad or Six Mile House] and the Petersburg Mine Explosion [the battle of the Crater].

Probert describes his accident (May 18), burials of Union soldiers (June 5 & 18), the arrival of the famous mortar "Dictator" (July 7), the murder of a soldier by another (July 10), reactions to Jubal Early's Washington Raid (July 13 & 14), an explosion at City Point caused by Confederate sabotage (August 9), life in Alexandria and City Point, and construction work such as boat building (June 8). There are also references to blacks (May 16; July 3 & 9), Confederate attacks (August 4, 9 & 25), Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant (July 3 & 4), Philip Sheridan (June 28), and George Meade (July 13 & 28), a Lee Tuttle of the 2nd Ohio Cavalry (August 6), and his friends and members of his family. He comments on the prices he paid for boots, breakfast at Fort Monroe, watermelon, and a rubber blanket (June 16; July 20 & 28; August 27). A slightly more detailed recounting of the August 9, 1864 explosion at City Point may be found on the final two pages of the diary.]

Unrelated entries, 1864-1869, usually not in diary form, pertain to various accounts, expenditures, names and addresses; there are notations for stud activities of bulls, the cost of hay obtained for a church, hog killing, butter and milk production, prices for carpentry supplies, lists of letters sent and received, and similar miscellaneous notes.

The remaining nine pieces are comprised of two receipts and a letter (November 3, 1863) concerning transactions between Probert and the Adams Express Company; a certificate of enrollment from the provost marshal's office in Nashville bearing a physical description of Probert; his honorable discharge which qualified him for transportation at half-fare (April 1, 1864); his oath of allegiance (May 4, 1864); a pass for him and five others to visit Petersburg (August 7); a permit which allowed him to travel on U. S. military railroads (October 14 1864); and, a 1871 obituary published in the Toledo Blade concerning the death of his father, Thomas, in Sylvania, Ohio.

CORRECTED SEQUENCE OF SELECTED ENTRIES IN THE 1864 DIARY OF DAVID PROBERT

PAGE HEADING / Actual Date

[4/30/64] May 2: Visits New York City (on way to Washington) after leaving Paterson, New Jersey
[5/3/64] May 4: Arrives at Alexandria, Va.; hired by Construction Corps; pay is $2.40 per day
[5/6/65] May 8: Ordered to be prepared to give water to wounded men but they do not arrive
[5/9/64] May 11: Completes work on a canal boat
[5/12/64] May 13: Heading to Belle Plains with beds; "a fine ride for U. Sam"
[5/15/64] May 16: Eleven blacks hung up by their thumbs
[5/18/64] May 18: Repairing a burnt bridge and building a tank house; he falls 18 feet and lands on side of a rail, injuring his leg, no doctor available
[5/21/64] May 22: At Falmouth; 400 foot 80 foot deep Potomac Creek Bridge
[5/21/64] May 23: Mentions Aquia Creek; leg is still painful
[5/24/64] May 25: Back in Alexandria
[5/27/64] May 29: Works on Long Bridge (spanning Potomac River)
[5/30/64] May 30: Wants a glass of lager
[6/2/64] June 2: Constructing flatboats
[6/5/64] June 5: Eight or nine soldiers buried every day [result of truce between Lee and Grant at Cold Harbor?]
[6/8/64] June 8: Begins construction of a boat 75 feet long by 24 feet and 6 feet deep
[6/11/64] June 13: Continues boat construction
[6/14/64] June 16: Receives boots from John C ? ; cost $6.75
[3/16/64] June 17: No work at noon; visits a fort
[3/16/64] June 18: Burial of 18 soldiers in the evening
[3/19/64] June 19: Sunday; walks with a friend around Alexandria; visits a church
[3/19/64] June 20: Works from midnight to 7 a.m.
[3/19/64] June 21: Loads iron, "rather curious work for a carpenter"; cramps in bowels
[3/22/64] June 22: Unloads iron until 3 p.m., then takes it easy
[3/22/64] June 23: Loads timber, "awful hot"
[3/22/64] June 24: Works all night; orders state he must be ready at 3 a.m.
[3/25/64] June 25: Works from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.; is to be sent to City Point
[3/25/64] June 26: Arrives at City Point, pitches tent, has a drink, feels "all right"
[3/25/64] June 27: Unloads railroad ties
[3/28/64] June 28: Steamboat ride to Mill Point [10 miles from City Point]; observes Sheridan's men crossing nearby
[3/28/64] June 29: Travels up Appomattox River; builds docks; vessels arrive to pick up rations
[3/28/64] June 30: Continues dock work
[3/31/64] July 1: Continues dock work
[3/31/64] July 2: Hears heavy gunfire
[3/31/64] July 3: A locomotive is taken off a boat; visits General Grant's headquarters and a "Nigger Meeting"
[4/3/64] July 4: Has to work despite holiday; mentions Grant; dead men being taken from the river
[4/3/64] July 5: A bridge is to be constructed 1 1/4 miles from Petersburg
[4/3/64] July 6: Up at 2 a.m. for bridge construction; hears heavy gunfire
[4/6/64] July 7: A mortar ["The Dictator"] is removed from a boat; it fires 13-inch shells and weighs 17,185 pounds
[4/6/64] July 8: Back to City Point
[4/6/64] July 9: "Niggers and whites rather hard looking"
[4/9/64] July 10: A soldier is murdered on a boat by another (using a piece of iron) for sleeping with his wife
[4/9/64] July 11: Thunderstorm approaches
[4/9/64] July 12: T. K. Benson falls into the water
[4/12/64] July 13: General Meade departs for Washington; batteries to the city [in response to Jubal Early's Raid?]
[4/12/64] July 14: "Exciting times at Washington" [reference to Early's Raid]
[4/12/64] July 15: Steamboat Georgia returns him to Alexandria
[4/15/64] July 16: Alexandria seems deserted on account of the "Rebs"
[4/15/64] July 17: "Another Sabbath day"; Mrs. Northrop at dinner; "Peter and James Taylor under arrest for walking toward the docks"
[4/15/64] July 18: Ordered back to City Point but ship is too full
[4/18/64] July 19: To City Point, with the mail; his birthday(?)
[4/18/64] July 20: Stops at Fort Monroe for a fifty-cent breakfast; arrives at City Point
[4/21/64] July 24: "Lot of our boys sent to the front," get scared and can't work
[4/24/64] July 25: Rains all night; caught four fish which were not very good
[4/24/64] July 26: Builds a hay platform of heavy logs
[4/24/64] July 27: An expedition [General Hancock's II Corps and General Sheridan's cavalry] heads out
[4/27/64] July 28: Sees General Meade; watermelons cost seventy-five cents
[4/27/64] July 30: Refers to the Petersburg Mine Explosion
[8/1/64] Aug 1: Many soldiers enroute to Washington
[8/4/64] Aug 4: Rebel battery fires on a mail boat
[8/4/64] Aug 6: Mentions a Lee Tuttle of the 2nd Ohio Cavalry
[8/7/64] Aug 7: Obtains a pass and visits the front at Petersburg
[8/7/64] Aug 9: Describes an explosion at City Point, 11:45 a.m. [caused by device planted by C.S.A. agents]
[8/13/64] Aug 14: Begins construction of cook house for the hospital
[8/13/64] Aug 15: Cook "shanty" completed
[8/16/64] Aug 18: Heavy showers; arrival of 4 captured Rebel mortars
[8/19/64] Aug 21: Refers to a battle [battle of Globe Tavern, otherwise known as Weldon Railroad or Six Mile House]
[8/22/64] Aug 22: Weldon Railroad is seized from the enemy
[8/25/64] Aug 25: Ordered to construct railroads for transport of 13-inch mortars; a Rebel solid shot lands within three feet of him; under fire all day
[8/25/64] Aug 27: Purchases a rubber blanket for $2.50
[8/31/64] Sept 1: "Strikes tent"; to build a road to connect the Weldon Road, "hard days work cutting ties until dark"