Manuscript Database
Creator/Title
Hunt, Jesse C., d. 1866. Diary, 24 April-19 June 1864. 42 pages.
Call No.
Mss. C H
Content
Photocopy of a diary, 24 April-19 June 1864, written by Jesse C. Hunt, a soldier during the Civil War in the 63rd Indiana Infantry Regiment. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Hunt was an aide-de-camp on Gen. Mahlon Dickerson Manson's staff. Hunt's diary commences with the Union departure from Bulls Gap, Tennessee in the final days of April 1864. Entries in May and June 1864 record Union movement into Georgia in the early stages of the Atlanta Campaign, with details of skirmishes and battles in northern Georgia. Hunt describes fighting in Dalton and the Battle of Resaca in May 1864, and Lost Mountain in June 1864. He frequently comments on the beauty of his natural surroundings; these statements are often at odds with his descriptions of death and the destruction of war, and his bouts of melancholy and homesickness. Hunt was granted sick leave in June 1864; however, he never recovered his health and died in Cincinnati on November 8, 1866.