26
The 7th Maine.
I told em and didn t intend to be taken
prisoner, preferring to kill just as many of
em as I could and then to take my own
death like a man rather than submit my-
self to their tender mercies. This silenced
the truculent Louisianian and shortly after-
wards I departed. Leaving headquarters
I skirted the woods to the right passing a
New York regiment and coming to the 7th
Maine, where, as advised, I inquired out
Quartermaster Whittemore no relation to him
of the Times but whose name I had heard
mentioned before with commendation by Cur-
tis when the reporter and I
met him on our ride towards Hanover Court
House He was a good-looking, shrewd
faced fellow, in company with others of a rough-
er type, and gave me hearty welcome. Pre-
sently he accompanied me to the tent of the
Colonel of the regiment, whose name was Ma-
son, a plucky little man, who had fought
well both at Williamsburg and Mechanicsville.
The regiment was a thorough yankee one,
its officers principally democrats at least
those I become acquainted with and down
on abolition, in which we differed. The
sergeant, cook and others who messed with| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty: page thirty-four |
| Description: | Regarding leaving the confederate prisoners and traveling to the hospitable camp of the 7th Maine. |
| Date: | 1862-05-29 |
| Subject: | Abolition; Civil War; Curtis (reporter); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Maine Infantry Regiment, 7th; Mason, Colonel; Military; Peninsular Campaign (Va.); Prisoners of war (Confederate); Whittemore; Whittemore (Quartermaster) |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Virginia] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-09-10 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, especially Hilton Head, Port Royal, St. Augustine, Key West, and the end of his experiences with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign when he had to leave camp due to illness. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Diseases; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marches (U.S. Army); Medical care (U.S. Army); Military; Military camp life; Peninsular Campaign (Va.); Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Port Royal, South Carolina; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Key West, Florida; St. Augustine, Florida; Virginia |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
