Information
Sheet
R Holland,
John.
405 Diary, 1865.
One folder,
typescript.
This is a Civil War diary of a soldier in
Co. F, 2nd U.S. Veteran Volunteers.
Holland served at Winchester,
Virginia, and Washington,
D.C., March‑June 1865, and at Elmira, New York,
July‑December 1865.
The Veteran Volunteer Corps was
authorized in November 1864 by the War Department. It consisted of veteran soldiers who had been
honorably discharged from service of not less than two years, and who would
enlist for at least one year. The corps
was headquartered at Washington,
D.C., and was commanded initially
by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
John Holland enlisted in Co. F, 2nd
U.S. Veteran Volunteers at Alton,
Illinois, on 16 February
1865. The “memoranda” section of his
diary indicates that he was a veteran of service on the Mississippi
River aboard the U.S. Ram Monarch,
from which he was discharged on 26 December 1864. Holland’s
diary is missing the pages from 1 January to 21 March 1865. The entries begin on 22 March, at which time
the regiment was posted at Camp Stoneman in Washington,
D.C. The regiment spent April and May 1865 in camp
at Winchester, Virginia,
then returned to Washington,
in June. The regiment was assigned to
the prison camp at Elmira, New York, in July, where it remained
through the end of 1865. John Holland
served at Elmira
until his discharge at the expiration of his enlistment on 16 February 1866.
Holland’s diary entries consist of daily
notations concerning camp life, regimental duties, and the weather. His military responsibilities were minimal,
primarily consisting of drill, guard duty and provost marshal assignments. At war’s end, the regiment’s picket guards
received many former Confederates who came into Union lines to surrender and
be paroled. Holland’s
diary is most useful for the period July‑December 1865, when the 2nd
U.S. Veteran Volunteers were posted at Elmira,
New York. Elmira
was an army training camp from May 1861 to May 1864, after which it was
designated a prisoner of war camp.
Confederate prisoners remained in camp as late as August 1865, although
most had been released by early summer.
Holland apparently had little to do with the
remaining prisoners in camp, but had a considerable acquaintance with the attractions
of the town of Elmira. He noted sampling the local “lager,” and
attending performances of Bailey’s Circus and various acrobatic and theatrical
acts. He was quite ecumenical, attending
a Fenian Society picnic, a “nigger” camp meeting, and “Old Ann’s” bawdy
house. From the latter he may have
contracted the venereal disease (“gonhera”) which bothered him in late
October.
Holland’s diary offers an entertaining and
useful view of the morale and discipline of veteran Union soldiers following
the conclusion of the Civil War. Some
aspects of camp life seem to have remained constant. The food was wretched, the paymaster was
tardy, and the duty was monotonous.
Discipline seems to have deteriorated markedly. There are many references to drunken “sprees”
and resulting fights among the soldiers which occasionally involved citizens
of Elmira. Officers at the post evidently found soldiers
waiting to be discharged a truculent lot.
Holland
frequently noted disciplinary actions against soldiers who refused to salute
officers, who wore civilian clothes rather than regulation uniforms, and who
came into camp drunk and abusive.
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