author
Jewett Palmer
1840–1917
A Civil War officer, local public figure, and careful chronicler of his regiment’s early service, he turned lived experience into vivid historical writing. His best-known work preserves the people, routines, and memories behind an Ohio volunteer company in the opening months of the war.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1840 and dying in 1917, Jewett Palmer was an Ohio Union officer whose life connected military service, local politics, and historical remembrance. Archival records describe him as a Union Army officer, mayor of Marietta, Ohio, and a Republican official in Washington County, and surviving family papers include correspondence, journals, military records, and autobiographical notes.
Palmer is best known as the author of A Historical Sketch of Company "B," Eighteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Published through Project Gutenberg from an older printed edition, the book is a detailed account of Company B’s three-month Civil War service, drawing attention to camp life, organization, marches, and the men who served beside him.
That mix of firsthand knowledge and record-keeping gives Palmer’s writing its lasting appeal. Rather than offering a distant overview of the war, he focused on the texture of everyday service and the memory of a specific company, making his work especially interesting for listeners who enjoy Civil War history, local history, and personal accounts from the period.