Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

[Tyler Underwood]

Folks, I wanted to take some time to let you know about a book that I just finished titled;

The Little Rock Campaign, Henry Harrison Brabham Civil War Diaries, Company H 77th Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers by Rebecca Kerr

In this book Sgt. Brabham keeps quite the record of his day-to-day life while in Army of Arkansas. This diary focuses more on his duties while in winter quarters and his interaction with the civilian population around Little Rock.

Here is a synopsis that was posted on a well known online book dealer.

“This book is based on the 1863 ~ 1864 Diaries of Sergeant Henry Harrison Brabham, Company H, 77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. It has all the remaining pages of the diaries, plus a dialog describing the events as they lead up to the capture and occupation of Little Rock, Arkansas. The official roster, deployment, major battles and other information on the men who were volunteers of Company H, 77th Ohio are included. Historical data is interspersed in with the diary pages to coincide with the action. Many of these men were brothers, brother-in-laws, cousins, even in some cases fathers who picked up and left their homes, farms and businesses to heed the call to arms to preserve the unity of their country. This is the story of one mans journey through this bloody period of history as he cared for his brothers and the men who served under him. This book also contains genealogy information and family history on the surname Brabham and the service of these men for both the blue and the gray during "this foul rebellion".”

If anyone wishes to know what the common soldier did to pass his time in this forgotten campaign, I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book.

[James Brenner]

Re: Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

I'm glad you posted your comments. I know you can't tell a book by its cover, but the cover of this one (plus the editorial review on the Amazon website) didn't make me want to pick this one up. I'll reconsider based upon your recommendation.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

I hope that you will find it as enjoyable as I did James.

[PMFerringer]

Re: Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

I just finished this book yesterday. I found the diary very interesting. It provided a perspective of monotony of army life, especially during winter quarters as Tyler stated. I found a few things particularly interesting: 1) The men seemed to have more freedom than I expected. The writer routinely describes walking around the city as well as leaving camp to go on hunting trips. Some of the trips were overnight. 2) There was a lot of wheeling and dealing going on in camps. The writer describes purchasing bulk food items and tobacco on several occasions and selling it back to the men of his company for a marginal profit. 3) Suicides. Within the short period covered by the writer, there were two suicides in the camp. Both men shot themselves. While this is not surprising, it is not mentioned as frequently as expected in other accounts.

On to the issues I had with the book. The intended audience of this book is unclear. The content of the diary is only appealing to the serious historian or reenactor interested in the daily routine of a soldier. Due to the lack of action and "excitement" in the diary, I have a hard time believing anyone else would finish the book; however, the editor includes a lot of random and very basic information that even someone with a basic knowledge of the Civil War and its soldiers would know. Sketches of basic equipment with over-generalized descriptions and paragraphs defining common period terms are included. If the intended audience was the editor's family (she is related to the diary writer) then I can understand the inclusion to a degree, but again, if they have interest in the material they would likely know these things.

The book would have been great if the diary was the only thing included. The additional writing by the editor is littered with typos, continuity issues, lack of consistency, and poor research. Wikipedia is cited as a primary source on several areas of background information taken word for word from the website. The editor is also missing key information and actually makes requests throughout the book for additional details from the reader throughout the book. This gives the book a feeling of an initial draft rather than a finished book. Finally, there is a lot of information included at the end specifically related to the editor's family tree. While this is interesting, without knowing more about the family it doesn't contribute anything. The family information is not organized and names are repeated. It appears it was copy and pasted from outlines of the editor's genealogy reports.

The diary section is definitely worth the time. It is a shame the 1862 diary was lost over time. The unit was heavily engaged at Shiloh and it would be interesting to hear that account.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

Thanks for the feedback Pat! Glad to hear someone else also had enjoyment from reading it.

I agree with your comments about the author. It seems that she only went as far as gathering the letters and threw together a lot of un-researched filler to make a semi complete book. But as you stated the diary entries are worth taking the time to read and in my opinion $15 is a small price to pay for valuable research.

Has anyone else taken the time to read this book? If so I would also enjoy hear what you have to say.

[PMFerringer]

Re: Diary of Sgt. Henry H. Brabham

I agree completely. I dog-eared a quite a few pages with interesting information that will come in handy for future events and impressions. I like the details provided about building winter quarters. It's always nice to gain more first hand information from Buckeye's in the war!