Diary of a Yankee Engineer: The Civil War Diary of John Henry Westervelt (North's Civil War, No. 1)

533 Pages·1996·3.16 MB·English

by  Anita Palladino

Diary of a Yankee Engineer : The Civil War
Story of John H. Westervelt, Engineer, 1st
title:
New York Volunteer Engineer Corps
North's Civil War ; No. 1
author: Westervelt, John H.; Palladino, Anita.
publisher: Fordham University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0823217248
print isbn13: 9780823217243
ebook isbn13: 9780585146959
language: English
Westervelt, John H.--(John Henry)--Diaries,
Military engineers--New York (State)--
Rockland County--Diaries, United States.--
subject Army.--New York Engineer Regiment, 1st
(1861-1865)--Biography, New York (State)-
-History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal
narratives
narratives
publication date: 1996
lcc: E523.9.W47 1996eb
ddc: 973.7/81
Westervelt, John H.--(John Henry)--Diaries,
Military engineers--New York (State)--
Rockland County--Diaries, United States.--
subject: Army.--New York Engineer Regiment, 1st
(1861-1865)--Biography, New York (State)-
-History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal
narratives
Page i
Diary of a Yankee Engineer
Page ii
Self-portrait of John H. Westervelt. Special Collections archives,
United States Military Academy, West Point.
Page iii
Diary of a Yankee Engineer
The Civil War Story of John H. Westervelt, Engineer, 1st
New York Volunteer Engineer Corps
edited by
Anita Palladino
Fordham University Press
New York
1997
Page iv
Copyright © 1997 by Fordham University Press
All rights reserved
LC 96-42521
ISBN 0-8232-1724-8
ISSN 1089-8719
The North's Civil War, no. 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Westervelt, John H. (John Henry)
Diary of a Yankee engineer: the Civil War story of John H.
Westervelt, engineer, 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Corps /
edited by Anita Palladino.
p. cm.(The North's Civil War, ISSN 1089-8719; no. 1)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8232-1724-8
1. Westervelt, John H. (John Henry)Diaries. 2. Military
engineersNew York (State)Rockland CountyDiaries.
3. United States. Army. New York Engineer Regiment, 1st
(1861-1865)Biography. 4. New York (State)HistoryCivil
War, 1861-1865Personal narratives. 5. United States
HistoryCivil War, 1861-1865Personal narratives.
6. Rockland County (N.Y.)Biography. I. Palladino, Anita.
II. Title. III. Series.
E523.9.W47 1997
973.7'81dc20 96-42521
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Page v
This book is dedicated
with love and gratitude to
my step-father, "Poppa Joe" Arcaro, finder of the diary, teller
of tales, and singer of songs who, I'm sure, is even now
enjoying some music and a demijohn of whiskey with John
Henry
and
my mother, Mildred Palladino Arcaro, who shared with me
her love of history and uncomplainingly endured endless
research trips and years of Westervelt obsession.
Page vii
Contents
Introduction ix
Acknowledgments xvii
A History of the Diary and Drawings of John H. xix
Westervelt
Chronology xxiii
Diary of a Yankee Engineer
South Carolina 1
Florida 107
Virginia 129
Epilogue 255
Sources 259
Index 263
Page ix
Introduction
By the time the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, two hundred
years had passed since the Westervelt family docked at New
Amsterdam. From two brothers on board the Hoop were to descend a
long line of patriots, religious and political leaders, and, in 1827, a
farmer's son named John Henry Westervelt.1
Unlike some of his more renowned relatives, John lived a relatively
obscure life. The little that is known about him comes, for the most
part, through his own words, written in faded ink and sent in
installments to his thirteen-year-old son, Frazee. This diary, on a
series of tattered, yellow pages, records "such things as may come
under my personal observation"2 during his service with the 1st New
York Engineer Corps.
John's accounts do not speak with the authority of a general and make
no pretense of battlefield heroics. Yet, by his intent to write not for
history, but for Frazee, his journal presents a truer vision of military
life than the more often told sagas of glory. The soldier's life of
relentless tedium, the fatiguing fight against the twin enemies of
pestilence and illness, give us perhaps one of the "truer, if not
beautiful"3 pictures of war. Early dreams of greatness depart, leaving
only the voice of an ordinary man in an extraordinary time, a man
who merely lived as he thought right, and died in consequence.
The early life of John Westervelt is largely undocumented; both
church and school records for the years involved are missing, yet his
youth was undoubtedly similar to that of other farm boys in mid-
nineteenth-century America. His early education was probably either
at Brick Church or English
1. W. Talman Westervelt, Genealogy of the Westervelt Family (Salem,
Mass.: Higginson Books, 1990), pp. 1-2.
2. Diary entry of May 8, 1864.
3. Comment written on reverse of his sketch.