Ohio History Journal

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146 OHIO HISTORY

146                                                         OHIO HISTORY

 

A DIARY OF ALBION W. TOURGEE

 

1. For biographical details see Roy F. Dibble, Albion W. Tourgee (New York, 1921),

Theodore L. Gross, Albion W. Tourgee (New York, 1963), and Otto H. Olsen, Carpet-

bagger's Crusade: The Life of Albion Winegar Tourgee (Baltimore, 1965). I have

relied chiefly on Dibble's book for this introduction to the diary.

2. Albion W. Tourgee, The Story of a Thousand (Buffalo, 1896).

3. Tourgee described these events, and some later army experiences as well, in his

autobiographical novel Figs and Thistles (New York, 1879). See also Olsen, Carpet-

bagger's Crusade, 15-17.

4. Tourgee, The Story of a Thousand, xxii.

5. Ibid., xxxvi.

6. Albion W. Tourgee, "The Christian Citizen," The Chautauquan, November 1881,

p. 93. Quoted in Dibble, Albion W. Tourgee, 26.

7. Tourgee, The Story of a Thousand, 106.

8. Ibid., xiii.

9. Dibble, Albion W. Tourgee, 33.

10. Albion W. Tourgee Papers in the Chautauqua County Historical Society, West-

field, New York. All manuscripts referred to hereafter are in this collection.

11. Gross, Albion W. Tourgee, 32.

12. Otto H. Olsen, "Albion W. Tourgee: Carpetbagger," North Carolina Historical

Review, XL (1963), 443-444.

13. Later revised and published as A Royal Gentleman (New York, 1881). For a

list of Tourgee's writings see the present writer's "A Checklist of the Writings of

Albion W. Tourgee (1838-1905)," Studies in Bibliography, XVIII (1965), 269-279.

14. For a guide to this collection see the present writer's An Index to the Albion

W. Tourgee Papers in the Chautauqua County Historical Society, Westfield, New

York (Kent, Ohio, 1964).

15. Probably Lieutenant Westcott of the 38th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

16. C. W. Heywood was one of Tourgee's former teachers at the Kingsville Academy.

17. The Kilbourne home was between Kingsville and Conneaut, Ohio, close to the

shore of Lake Erie.

18. Tourgee's father, Valentine Tourgee, Jr., lived in Kingsville.

19. Edward V. Bowers, commanding officer, Co. K, 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

All references to companies hereafter are to companies of the 105th O.V.I. unless

otherwise indicated. The Story of a Thousand carries in its Appendix not only a

roster of the regiment but also tables giving the complete military record of the

men who served in it.

20. Rosetta Tourgee, Albion Tourgee's half sister.

21. A hotel on Third Street in Cincinnati.

22. Tourgee was a student at the University of Rochester from 1859 to 1861.

23. The St. Cloud Hotel was the leading hotel in Nashville from prior to 1860

to 1889.

24. An extravaganza based on a German play. It had a long run in New York

during the 1860-61 season starring Laura Keene.

25. Slang for captured.

26. Probably Joseph R. Warner, sergeant, Co. G. He was assigned to the office of

the divisional medical director, as a sort of private secretary, according to a letter

from Tourgee to his wife, May 30, 1863.

27. Probably Benjamin F. Cushing, sergeant, Co. G. On May 30, 1863, Tourgee wrote

to his wife: "It really makes my heart bleed to see that faithful fellow Cushing

plodding away like a slave without even the poor prospects legitimately attached

to the Sergt's position. There is no hope of his ever getting the promotion he so well

deserves." See also, Tourgee, The Story of a Thousand, 224.

28. Seneca Kuhn, after the war a partner of Tourgee in the nursery business in

North Carolina. Olsen, Carpetbagger's Crusade, 28.

29. Letters to Tourgee were often long delayed. This refers to a letter from Emma

Tourgee before their marriage that had just reached him. She often signed them

"votre fiancee."

30. Byron W. Canfield, Co. E, was in charge of a forage detail that was captured

on January 21, 1863, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He was exchanged May 8, 1863,

and dismissed from the army without a hearing for failure to obey orders. He was

later reinstated by order of the war department. The letter mentioned was a protest

of this dismissal signed by many officers of the regiment. See Tourgee, The Story

of a Thousand, 175-186, and Table III, p. xli, and The War of the Rebellion: A Com-

pilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington,

D. C., 1880-1901), Series I, Vol. XXIII, Pt. 1, pp. 15-16, and Series II, Vol. V, p. 242.