J. J. (John Jackson) Kellogg

author

J. J. (John Jackson) Kellogg

1837–1916

A Union Army captain and former teacher, he turned his Civil War diary into a vivid firsthand account of the Vicksburg campaign. His writing is valued today for its plainspoken detail and on-the-ground view of one of the war’s decisive operations.

1 Audiobook

War Experiences and the Story of the Vicksburg Campaign from "Milliken's Bend" to July 4, 1863 being an accurate and graphic account of campaign events taken from the diary of Capt. J.J. Kellogg, of Co. B 113th Illinois volunteer infantry

War Experiences and the Story of the Vicksburg Campaign from "Milliken's Bend" to July 4, 1863 being an accurate and graphic account of campaign events taken from the diary of Capt. J.J. Kellogg, of Co. B 113th Illinois volunteer infantry

by J. J. (John Jackson) Kellogg

About the author

John Jackson Kellogg was born on October 16, 1837, in Adams, New York, and died on May 17, 1916, in Washington, Iowa. Records available online identify him as a teacher living in Norton, Kankakee County, Illinois, before he entered military service during the Civil War.

He served in Company B of the 113th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, where he became first sergeant. A memorial record says he was discharged in early 1865 to accept a commission as a captain in the 88th U.S. Colored Troops. His best-known book, published in Washington, Iowa, in 1913, is War Experiences and the Story of the Vicksburg Campaign from "Milliken's Bend" to July 4, 1863, drawn from his own wartime diary.

That book remains his chief legacy as a writer. More than a polished literary memoir, it reads like a direct witness account, preserving the daily movement, strain, and feeling of the campaign in the words of someone who was there.