The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book of Henry O. Gusley

by Edward T. Cotham Jr. (Editor)

Overview

On September 28, 1863, the Galveston Tri-Weekly News caught its readers' attention with an item headlined "A Yankee Note-Book." It was the first installment of a diary confiscated from U.S. Marine Henry O. Gusley, who had been captured at the Battle of Sabine Pass. Gusley's diary proved so popular with readers that they clamored for more, causing the newspaper to run each excerpt twice until the whole diary was published. For many in Gusley's Confederate readership, his diary provided a rare glimpse into the opinions and feelings of an ordinary Yankee—an enemy whom, they quickly discovered, it would be easy to regard as a friend.

This book contains the complete text of Henry Gusley's Civil War diary, expertly annotated and introduced by Edward Cotham. One of the few journals that have survived from U.S. Marines who served along the Gulf Coast, it records some of the most important naval campaigns of the Civil War, including the spectacular Union success at New Orleans and the embarrassing defeats at Galveston and Sabine Pass. It also offers an unmatched portrait of daily life aboard ship. Accompanying the diary entries are previously unpublished drawings by Daniel Nestell, a doctor who served in the same flotilla and eventually on the same ship as Gusley, which depict many of the locales and events that Gusley describes.

Together, Gusley's diary and Nestell's drawings are like picture postcards from the Civil War—vivid, literary, often moving dispatches from one of "Uncle Sam's nephews in the Gulf."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292726000
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	02/01/2006
Series:	Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series , #10
Pages:	223
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Edward T. Cotham, Jr., is an independent scholar based in Houston, Texas. He is a member and past president of the Houston Civil War Roundtable, and also leads tours of Civil War battlegrounds in Texas and lectures to historical and civic groups.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Galveston Tri-Weekly News Introduction to the Note-Book
• Chapter 1. The Battle Below New Orleans
• Chapter 2. Ship Island, the Pearl River, and Lake Pontchartrain
• Chapter 3. Pensacola
• Chapter 4. New Orleans
• Chapter 5. The Mississippi River
• Chapter 6. Baton Rouge, Plaquemine, and Donaldsonville
• Chapter 7. The Return to Pensacola and Ship Island
• Chapter 8. The Capture of Galveston
• Chapter 9. Matagorda Bay
• Chapter 10. The Battle of Galveston
• Chapter 11. The Capture of U.S.S. Hatteras
• Chapter 12. A New Commander
• Chapter 13. Mississippi Sound
• Chapter 14. The Swamps of Louisiana
• Chapter 15. Butte a la Rose
• Chapter 16. Mobile Bay
• Chapter 17. The Return to the Teche Country
• Chapter 18. The Battle of Sabine Pass
• Chapter 19. Letters from Prison
• Notes
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Joseph G. Dawson III

"Journals of nineteenth-century U.S. Marines are rare, and Henry Gusley's is a truly outstanding account of the shipboard experiences and observations of an enlisted marine.... Edward Cotham's scholarship in the introduction and in annotating the journal is outstanding, and he has drawn on the appropriate sources. This is one of the best jobs of editing in the field."

Patrick Kelly

"I found Gusley's 'notebook' fascinating, informative, and ultimately moving.... Civil War historians will find the information about the inner workings and day-to-day life aboard U.S. naval vessels patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the major river systems of the Trans-Mississippi interior highly informative.... This book should also find a popular audience. Bright, literate, constantly upbeat, and good-humored despite the many difficult circumstances he found himself in, Gusley is good company for his readers."