Avery, Charles W.

Fifty diaries, 1855-1902, belonging to Charles W. Avery of Clinton, Lenawee County, Michigan, formerly of Cato, New York [2nd Cayuga, Company G, 75th New York Volunteer Infantry]

Various, 1855-1902, none for 1856, 1859, 1877. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #99-9539

4 x 2.5" to 6 x 3", mainly leather, a few cloth and wraps, pagination varies. Covers well worn, some diaries lack their ties, one is disbound, another lacks covers, a few have chewed edges, waterstaining, wrinkling, soiling, overall good condition. Avery writes in pencil which has resulted in smudgy and sometimes blurry contents and it gets worse as he ages. In the years prior to the Civil War he worked at a variety of jobs, travelled locally and decorated his diaries with fancy stencil work. One of his stamps reads "C.W. Avery Stencil Engraver Photochromatic Landscape Painter Seneca River." He enlisted in the 75th New York Volunteers on September 20, 1861 and served until July 1863 when he was discharged from a New Orleans hospital for consumption/tuberculosis. In December the 75th arrived at Goose Island (Long Island Sound) and quartered at Castle Williams where there were 600 rebel prisoners. Next on to Fort Pickens, (Santa Rosa Island, Florida) where he met a runaway slave who told him the rebels were exhausted and would surrender. In early 1862, they fired upon a rebel steamboat, captured a schooner and set it afire, deserters and runaway slaves came (separately) to the fort, heavy firing at the navy yard, more men dying of typhoid. On April 8th they were expecting General Butler and that is his last entry on the war. Not much going on for a couple of years until he and his family move to Michigan and eventually settled in the town of Clinton. The next few decades were filled with struggle. Many odd jobs ie building houses, barns, farming, repairing violins, gravedigging, selling washing machines. In the mid 1870s it came to a head, broke, "nothing but a little flour and milk to live on", in debt and his farm went into foreclosure. After that he found religion and presumably stopped drinking as there is a card for "The Clinton Reform Club" which he signed, meaning he would "abstain from buying, selling, or using alcoholic beverages..." His drinking is not mentioned in the diaries. He switched his voting alliance from Republican to the Union Prohibition ticket. Except for a lot of religious prayer meetings life was pretty much the same; looking for jobs and places to stay, he stayed with friends in nearby towns/counties. Adding to that was a fallout with his family and trouble getting his pension. Not all doom and gloom, he visited Detroit in 1890 and went in a ten story building, saw the glass works, the fort, "walked down Jefferson Avenue past bloody run over the long bridge to Belle Isle." Two years later he had a lengthy visit to his home state of New York, his first time back after twenty-six years. Avery also attended and marched at Decoration Day parades, went to the reunion for the 75th N.Y. Vols. And noted the date of his enlistment every year. A source of relaxation for him was reading, he read a lot of books and listed their names. He also read several newspapers and commented on the news like the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor and the assassination of President William McKinley. He also noted the passing of General Grant. His health problems increase, on December 10, 1902 his doctor tells him it will take a long time to get well and that Avery should go to the Soldier's Home in Grand Rapids. The Soldier's Home can't come to get him until January, so "with legs and body badly swelled" a friend takes him there. On December 31st, he writes in a very shaky hand that he stayed last night at the "Grand Rapids Soldiers Hospital." That was his last entry. He died there on January 7, 1903 and his body was returned to Clinton for burial. Sold as is. Sold as a lot.

Price: $4,500.00