Peter Reeder Fortney Civil War Diaries

This collection contains two diaries kept by Ohio Union soldier Peter Reeder Fortney during the last two years of the US Civil War (1864-1865), when his company served in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama. Both diaries provide details of daily life in Fortney’s camp, such as information about food, weather, Fortney’s duties with the company’s band, and soldiers’ leisure activities. The first diary covers the period of January 1-December 29, 1864. It includes an account of Fortney's participation in the Red River Campaign, a failed attempt to capture the Confederate-held city of Shreveport, Louisiana, that lasted from March to May 1864. His observations for April 12, 1864, note that African Americans “are falling [sic] the timber in front of us the rebs are marching on and they are looking for an attack.”

The second diary covers January-August 1865, including a record of Fortney’s participation in the Union campaign to capture Mobile, Alabama, in April of that year. He also describes his company’s move to Galveston, Texas, where they stayed in June and July 1865. The final pages of Fortney’s 1865 diary list an account of his clothing costs for July and August, and contain a pressed plant above the inscription: “This Rose Leaf was taken from near the monument of B. F. Pierce in the cemetery at Selma, Alabama. May 11, 1865.” There are also several loose papers and newspaper clippings, such as a handwritten 1860 invitation to “Mr. Peter Fortney and sister,” and a typed 1915 letter from Fortney about the capture of Fort Blakeley, Alabama, during the 1865 Mobile campaign.