James Cummins Bookseller

Tennessee: December 1, 1863 to August 23, 1864.

[107]pp. Written in pen-and-ink or pencil. Some entries written in cipher. 4-3/4 x 3 inches. Contemporary wallet-style morocco, rubbed Item #326745

The 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, "Anderson's Cavalry" was an independent unit reporting directly to the headquarters of the Army of the Cumberland, performing escort, scouting, courier and other details. The regiment served with distinction during the Tullahoma Campaign and at the Battle of Chickamauga, and then participated in the Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville Campaigns.

Following the relief of Knoxville, which is where the present diary begins, the regiment began a winter campaign in upper East Tennessee, seeing action at Gatlinburg (December 10-11), near Dandridge (December 23: "Had a big fight. 4 wounded & several persons capt.") and Mossy Creek (December 29: "Pretty darnded hard fight. Adjutant Single killed & 6 wounded"). Much of the remaining service in the winter and spring consisted of scouting and picket duty, largely in the vicinity of Nashville and by the summer the regiment was training recruits and guarding railroad lines.

Most entries are brief in nature, recording weather, letters received, meals eaten, location, duty and movements. Other entries record having his photograph taken, paying $.25 to "a gentleman of colored persuasion" to repair the handle to his frying pan, and a mishap on April 14 when the scouting party returned with prisoners and one is killed by friendly fire when the picket "mistook the scout for a reb ... and tried to take him prisoner when Puhle shot him through the heart."

A lengthy entry on April 20 records a visit to the Chickamauga battle ground: "We started on foot and took the La Fayette road for about 4 miles till we came to the field where Genl. Rosencrans Head Quarters were at the time of the battle and where we were drawn up in line when the center broke on Sunday. We walked past the log breastworks where the heavy fighting was done. Many of the trees are completely skinned by the balls. Where a battery was stationed 15 horses were laying round that had been killed when the Battery was disabled."

Taking a train from Chattanooga on May 6, shortly after Stevenson "some bushwhackers fired a volley into us, wounding the engineer seriously and the fireman in 5 places. We were all sound asleep and one ball passed through the car about 3 inches above Srgt. Beck's head." A number of entries include lines written in a cipher, possibly relating to call signs during picket duty.

Laws (1845-1913) was discharged in June 1865, and following the war graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a medical degree (class of 1871), and became a physician in Paulsboro, NJ.

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