author
Lemuel Abijah Abbott
1842–1911
A Union Army officer from Vermont, he left behind a vivid firsthand account of the Civil War that later became a valuable memoir. His writing brings camp life, long marches, and battlefield experience into sharp human focus.
1 Audiobook
Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864
by Lemuel Abijah Abbott
About the author
Born in Barre, Vermont, in 1842, Lemuel Abijah Abbott served in the 10th Vermont Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. His best-known work, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, grew out of notes he kept as a young officer and was published in 1908.
The book stands out for its direct, day-by-day view of military life in 1864 and into 1865. Rather than offering a distant history, Abbott writes from lived experience, recording movement, hardship, combat, and the ordinary details that make a soldier's world feel real to modern readers.
Abbott died in 1911. Today, his diary remains most interesting as a personal record: plainspoken, observant, and useful for readers who want to see the Civil War through the eyes of someone who was there.