author
Lemuel Abijah Abbott
1842–1911
Best known for a firsthand Civil War diary, this Vermont-born writer turned personal experience into vivid historical memory. His work offers an intimate view of military life in 1864 and the final stretch of the war.
1 Audiobook
Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864
by Lemuel Abijah Abbott
About the author
Lemuel Abijah Abbott was an American writer born in 1842 and died in 1911. He is chiefly remembered for Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, a memoir drawn from his service as a young officer in the Tenth Vermont Volunteer Infantry.
Published in 1908, the book preserves Abbott's day-by-day observations from one of the most intense periods of the Civil War, covering 1864 and extending into 1865. Its appeal today comes from its plainspoken, firsthand perspective: instead of a distant history, readers get the voice of someone who lived the marches, battles, and routines of army life.
Abbott also appears in library and book records as the author of genealogical work in addition to his war memoir. Even so, his reputation rests most strongly on the diary, which continues to be valued as a personal window into the Union soldier's experience.