Ramsey County History – Spring 1964: “‘. . . Conclude It My Duty to Enlist & Therefore Enlisted…:’ The Diary of a Civil War Soldier”

‘. . . Conclude It My Duty to Enlist & Therefore Enlisted…:’ The Diary of a Civil War Soldier
Author: Hal E. McWethy

Newell Burch joined the Union army in August of 1862 in Jamestown, New York. Slightly wounded at Chancellorsville and captured at Gettysburg, he spent the rest of the war a prisoner in Virginia and then Andersonville, Georgia. He kept a diary, which he later added to and revised. Burch moved to Minnesota many years later. This article, extracts from the diary plus editorial enlargement, came from his son-in-law. The excerpts deal with camp life, his capture, and then life in prison. At Andersonville, Burch suffered from illness, injury, and the terrible conditions before being released on April 21, 1865. The original diary is at the Minnesota Historical Society.
PDF of McWethy article.