Information
Sheet
R Rogers, James S., 1837-1864.
249 Papers, 1862-1863.
Two folders,
photocopies.
This collection includes a Civil War
diary and letters of James S. Rogers, a resident of Corydon, Iowa, and member of Co.
M of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry.
The diary and letters cover his departure from home, enlistment and
training at Davenport, Iowa,
and cavalry service in southern Missouri and
northern Arkansas.
Born in Illinois, James Rogers was living in
Corydon, Wayne County, Iowa, when the Civil War began. He remained at home during the first year of
the war, but he determined to enlist in August 1862 as a replacement in the 3rd
Iowa Cavalry. His brother, William H. H.
Rogers, was already serving in that unit.
Rogers and several other recruits left Corydon for Keokuk, where they
enlisted in the 3rd Cavalry.
They were sent to Camp McClellan at Davenport
for initial training, after which they were dispatched to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri,
in October 1862. Once armed, equipped,
and mounted, Rogers and the other replacements
joined the regiment at Lebanon,
Missouri. They served for the next six months in
southern and southeastern Missouri, and then
moved into Arkansas, assisting in the capture
of Little Rock
in September 1863. James Rogers
re-enlisted as a veteran on 1 January 1864.
He became ill soon thereafter, and was sent home for recuperation. He died at Corydon on 10 March 1864.
Rogers’s papers consist of his diary, 19
August-14 November 1862, and letters to his wife, Emily, 22 August 1862--24
December 1863. There are also two
letters, an undated item, and a fragment concerning the Battle of Pea Ridge,
Arkansas, written by William H. H. Rogers prior to his brother’s enlistment in the
3rd Iowa Cavalry. James
Rogers's diary and letters overlap for the period during his training,
providing a good view of life in the camps of instruction at Davenport
and St. Louis. The diary entries ended when Rogers
joined his regiment at Lebanon
in November 1862, but his letters continued throughout his term of
service. There are letters from Lebanon, Hartville, Houston,
Pilot Knob, Arcadia, and Bloomfield
in Missouri, and from Little
Rock and Benton in Arkansas.
The most useful are those from Houston,
Pilot Knob, Arcadia, Bloomfield,
and Little Rock. They contain camp news, speculations on army
movements and the position of the enemy, and Rogers’s comments on the progress of the war
in the Trans-Mississippi.
A typescript copy of the diary of William
H. H. Rogers is located at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines.
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