Charles Smedley

author

Charles Smedley

1836–1864

A young Pennsylvania soldier’s diary became one of the most vivid firsthand accounts of Civil War prison life. Written with plain honesty, his work follows capture, hardship, and endurance in the final year of his short life.

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 on November 1, 1836, in Fulton Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Charles Smedley was the eldest son of Joel and Martha Smedley. He grew up on the family farm, attended local public school, and later spent time teaching before the Civil War.

Smedley served as a corporal in Company G of the 90th Pennsylvania Volunteers. His best-known work, Life in Southern Prisons, grew from the diary he kept after being captured during the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. The book also includes his recollections of Gettysburg and is valued today as a direct, personal record of prison life during the war.

He was taken through several Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Florence, and died in captivity in 1864. Because his life was so brief, his reputation rests almost entirely on this single surviving diary, which preserves the voice of a soldier writing from inside one of the war’s hardest experiences.