Charles Smedley

author

Charles Smedley

1836–1864

A Union corporal’s Civil War diary became a vivid firsthand account of battle, captivity, and prison life in the Confederacy. His writing survives as a direct, humane record of Gettysburg, Andersonville, and the final months of a life cut short in 1864.

1 Audiobook

Life in Southern Prisons From the Diary of Corporal Charles Smedley, of Company G, 90th Regiment Penn'a Volunteers, Commencing a Few Days Before the "Battle of the Wilderness", In Which He Was Taken Prisoner ... Also, a Short Description of the March to and Battle of Gettysburg, Together with a Biographical Sketch of the Author

Life in Southern Prisons From the Diary of Corporal Charles Smedley, of Company G, 90th Regiment Penn'a Volunteers, Commencing a Few Days Before the "Battle of the Wilderness", In Which He Was Taken Prisoner ... Also, a Short Description of the March to and Battle of Gettysburg, Together with a Biographical Sketch of the Author

by Charles Smedley

About the author

Born in Fulton Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Charles Smedley was a soldier rather than a career author. He served in Company G of the 90th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the American Civil War, and the work associated with his name grew out of the journal he kept while on campaign and in captivity.

Smedley is remembered for Life in Southern Prisons, published from his diary after his death. The book follows his experience around the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, his capture by Confederate forces, and his imprisonment, including time at Andersonville and Florence. It also preserves his recollections of Gettysburg, giving readers a plainspoken view of war from the ranks.

He died in November 1864 while still a prisoner of war, so his reputation rests on a single surviving work and the unusual immediacy of its witness. That gives his writing a special force: it is not polished memoir written years later, but the voice of someone living through exhaustion, hunger, hope, and fear as events unfolded.