This collection of Civil War diaries concerns the army life of
Dwight S. Allen, Geneva, Wisconsin, who enlisted in Company C, 22nd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers on August 25, 1862. Corporal Allen was faithful in recording his company's movements, day to day army life, his own assignments, his views of the war, and details concerning some of the actual engagements.
Entries in his diaries, dating from January 1, 1862, do not become extensive until after his enlistment. The seven small volumes then recount his experiences for the entire three years of service. In them he details the soldier's life -- how he slept and what he ate, the appearance of the countryside, and the aftermath of battles. During the weeks preceding the siege of Atlanta he describes movements and skirmishes in northern Georgia, and the placement of the various army corps in preparation for the siege.
After first serving near Lexington, Kentucky, Private Allen was captured at Thompson's Station in Tennessee, March 3, 1863, and spent several days in Libby Prison before being released at City Point on the first of April. Back in the Union forces, he was sent to St. Louis via the Ohio River, then returned to Tennessee where he served as a railroad guard between Chattanooga and Nashville in the spring of 1864.
Promoted to corporal on September 15, 1864, he took part in all engagements of the Atlanta campaign in which the 22nd Regiment was involved. Since he was also in the Savannah campaign, one assumes he was with Sherman's forces on his march to the sea, although there is a gap of three months in the diaries, October 13, 1864 to January 29, 1865. He was left at the hospital in Savannah, but was able to rejoin his regiment near Goldsboro, N.C., marched north through Richmond, and paraded with his regiment through the streets of Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1865.
The diaries end at his home in Wisconsin, just ten days after he was mustered out near Washington on June 12, 1865.
