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Pages 1-50 of the Civil War diary of James K. Ferguson (d. 1864) of the 19th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, written between April 1862 and May 1863. The diary was written in ink and pencil. A selected transcription and index can be found in the finding aid. The volume opens at Boggy Depot in the Choctaw Nation (later Oklahoma) and traces Ferguson's campaigning through various Arkansas military encampments until his capture at the Battle of Arkansas Post (Fort Hindman). He described his imprisonment at Camp Chase, Ohio, and exchange. Ferguson ended the volume as he traveled south to rejoin the Confederate Army and learned about the consolidation of his regiment and brigade. A note in the diary indicates that Ferguson apparently kept other diaries but the location or survival of these is unknown. James K. Ferguson, born circa 1838, was probably from Madison, Indiana, on the Kentucky border. He enlisted in the Confederate army in Wilton, Pike County, Arkansas, on October 19, 1861 and was assigned to Company C of the 19th Arkansas Infantry under Colonel C. L. Dawson—organized at Nashville, Arkansas, in November 1861—and made a corporal. Ferguson served on the northern Arkansas border, in the Indian Territory, and then returned to Arkansas. Ferguson was promoted to First Sergeant in May 1862, and when the regiment was reorganized in August 1862 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and assigned to Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post. He was captured after the surrender of Arkansas Post to Union forces on January 11, 1863. He was imprisoned at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, and then exchanged at City Point, Virginia, on April 29, 1863, and returned to his regiment. He became quartermaster of the 3rd Brigade, Churchill’s Division. The regiment was reorganized and consolidated with the 24th Regiment in September 1863 and fought at the Battle of Chickamauga. It was then consolidated with the 8th Regiment in November and fought in Georgia. Ferguson died in Gilmer Hospital, Marietta, Georgia on June 26, 1864.

Identifier

sc.0039.001_001.001

Date

1862-1863

Keywords

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives., Confederate States of America. Army. Arkansas Infantry Regiment, 19th.

James K. Ferguson diary, pages 001-050

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