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May 16th

Is it a dream, oh no
its a dread reality. here I am
seated on the floor of one of
the Liby prisen as a prisener
of war. most of my Regt are
with me. I have learned to feel
thankful that I was not wound
ed in the bloody strife and then
fall into the hands of my enemies.
The night before the 15, just
at eve my Regt were relieved from

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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On May 16, 1864, Confederate troops attacked Union positions at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia. During the battle some 400 Union soldiers, including a general, were captured. James Childs Hitchcock (1841-1864), serving in the 27th Mass. Regiment, also became a prisoner of war. His journal entry written on the day of the battle records his shock at finding himself in Libby Prison in Richmond. A few months later Hitchcock was transferred to Andersonville Prison in Georgia where he died from unknown causes on September 18, 1864. Andersonville Prison was the most gruesome of American detention camps. When news of its condition leaked out to the media after its capture by the Union Army, the revulsion toward the Confederates intensified the thirst for revenge among many Northerners.

 

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Excerpt from James Childs Hitchcock's Civil War Military Journal

author   James Childs Hitchcock (1841-1864)
date   May 16, 1864
location   Virginia
height   5.75"
width   3.0"
process/materials   manuscript, paper, ink
item type   Personal Documents/Diary
accession #   #L00.038


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See Also...

James Childs Hitchcock (1841-1864)

American Missionary Association membership of Nathaniel Hitchcock

"Order of Exercises at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, Deerfield Mass."


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