| On
September 28, 1863, the Galveston Tri-Weekly News
caught its readers' attention with an item headlined "A
Yankee Note-Book." It was the first installment of a
diary confiscated from U.S. Marine Henry O. Gusley, who had
been captured at the Battle of Sabine Pass. Gusley's diary
proved so popular with readers that they clamored for more,
causing the newspaper to run each excerpt twice until the
whole diary was published. For many in Gusley's Confederate
readership, his diary provided a rare glimpse into the opinions
and feelings of an ordinary Yankee — an enemy whom,
they quickly discovered, it would be easy to regard as a friend.
This book contains
the complete text of Henry Gusley's Civil War diary, expertly
annotated and introduced by Edward Cotham. One of the few
journals that have survived from U.S. Marines who served along
the Gulf Coast, it records some of the most important naval
campaigns of the Civil War, including the spectacular Union
success at New Orleans and the embarrassing defeats at Galveston
and Sabine Pass. It also offers an unmatched portrait of daily
life aboard ship. Accompanying the diary entries are previously
unpublished drawings by Daniel Nestell, a doctor who served
in the same flotilla and eventually on the same ship as Gusley,
which depict many of the locales and events that Gusley describes.
Together, Gusley's
diary and Nestell's drawings are like picture postcards from
the Civil War — vivid, literary, often moving dispatches
from one of "Uncle Sam's nephews in the Gulf."
"Journals of nineteenth-century U.S. Marines are rare,
and Henry Gusley's is a truly outstanding account of the shipboard
experiences and observations of an enlisted marine.... Edward
Cotham's scholarship in the introduction and in annotating
the journal is outstanding, and he has drawn on the appropriate
sources. This is one of the best jobs of editing in the field."
— Joseph G. Dawson III, Professor of History, Texas
A&M University
"I found Gusley's
'notebook' fascinating, informative, and ultimately moving....
Civil War historians will find the information about the inner
workings and day-to-day life aboard U.S. naval vessels patrolling
the Gulf of Mexico and the major river systems of the Trans-Mississippi
interior highly informative.... This book should also find
a popular audience. Bright, literate, constantly upbeat, and
good-humored despite the many difficult circumstances he found
himself in, Gusley is good company for his readers."
— Patrick Kelly, Associate Professor of History, University
of Texas at San Antonio
Edward T. Cotham, Jr., is an independent
scholar based in Houston, Texas. He is a member and past president
of the Houston Civil War Roundtable, and also leads tours
of Civil War battlegrounds in Texas and lectures to historical
and civic groups.
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