“I was out in the woods chopping with Charles Nowlton [sic: Knowlton] and was just thinking of going home for the night, when Lieut. Geo. S. Darling came out where we were to work, seeking for recruits, and as I had been wanting to enlist, this was just the opportunity, so I took his pencil and paper upon an oak stump and made myself a soldier for three years in Co. F_., 31st regt.”

Thus begins the Diary of Richard F. Underwood, just one of scores of newly-discovered manuscripts of Civil War diaries, reminiscences, and personal recollections of members of the 31st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Comprised mainly of troops from the four western counties of Massachusetts, the unit was known as the “Western Bay State Regiment.” The regiment was the first to enter New Orleans in 1862 and from then until the end of the war the unit was stationed in and around Louisiana, having participated in the Siege of Port Hudson, the Red River Campaign, Sabine Cross Roads, and other actions.

The manuscripts were found in the archives of the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History in Springfield, Massachusetts. They had been collected in the early 1900s by the regimental historian, Lewis Frederick Rice, with the purpose of publishing a regimental history which was never completed. In 1929, the documents were donated by the dwindling regimental association to the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, whose collection was absorbed by the current museum. They have remained unprocessed until now. The collection includes more than fifty manuscripts written by more than thirty individuals. Most have been transcribed and typewritten, but none, to our knowledge, has been published before.

Some of the documents are simply transcripts of the day-by-day diaries kept by the soldiers at the time. Most, like the Underwood transcript, appear to be edited reminiscences based on actual diary entries. Others are personal recollections written retrospectively. All combined, they draw a vivid and insightful picture of Civil War camp life in and around Louisiana from 1862 through 1865.