Information
Sheet
R Lamkin, Alfred Avery, 1833‑1918.
443 Diaries, 1853‑1872.
Five
folders, photocopies.
These are diaries of Alfred Avery Lamkin,
a soldier in the 25th Ohio Infantry and a civilian employee of the
army during the Civil War, who moved to Jasper
County, Missouri, in
1866. His diaries cover antebellum
employment in Ohio, Indiana,
and Missouri, military service in Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky,
and postwar activities in Ohio and Missouri.
Alfred Avery Lamkin was born on 30 June
1833 in Venice, Cayuga County, New York. By 1853 he and his family were living near
Republic and Tiffin in Seneca County, Ohio. Lamkin took various jobs in the late
1850s. They included positions as
laborer and candy salesman in Ohio and Indiana, as a brakeman on the Hannibal & St. Joseph
Railroad in Missouri, and as a teamster in Missouri and Iowa. Lamkin was in Ohio when the Civil War began. He enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 25th
Ohio Infantry on 8 June 1861. He was
appointed sergeant after his enlistment and was promoted to second lieutenant
on 23 January 1863. Lamkin served with
his unit in Virginia and saw action at Cheat Mountain,
Beverly,
McDowell, Cross Keys, where he was wounded, and Second Bull Run. Lamkin was detailed to the ambulance corps in
October 1862, and in March 1863 took command of the ambulance train of the 2nd
Brigade, 1st Division, 11th Army Corps of the Army of the
Potomac.
In that capacity he was involved in evacuation of the wounded from the
battlefields of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Lamkin was relieved of duty with the
ambulances in August 1863 when the 25th Ohio
was moved to Folly
Island and Morris Island,
South Carolina.
Lamkin resigned his commission in
November 1863 and returned to Ohio. He secured a position as a civilian employee
of the quartermaster department and was back with the Army of the Potomac by
September 1864, assigned to wagon trains working to and from the army and the
depot at City Point, Virginia.
In May 1865, Lamkin went to Columbus,
Kentucky, where he was involved
in quartermaster affairs. He remained
through the summer of 1865 removing cannon from fortifications and disposing
of surplus property.
Lamkin returned to Ohio in October 1865. He worked on the family farm and occasionally
drove a team hauling wood, fodder and apples.
He wed Mattie Fleet of Seneca
County on 16 October
1866. Along with his wife and her
father, Abraham Fleet, Lamkin moved to Jasper County,
Missouri, to take up residence on a farm
owned by the Fleets on Dry Creek north of Carthage. Lamkin was a farmer, stockman, and county
official in Jasper
County until his death on
9 April 1918.
Lamkin’s diaries for 1853‑1872 are
in five small “pocket” journals. The
brief entries note personal activities and acquaintances, primarily for the
period 1855‑1866. There are no
entries for 1854, 1858, or the period August 1859—July 1862. Miscellaneous memoranda and notes on personal
finances are at the end of each diary.
The first diary (Folder 1) covers the
period 1853‑1859, which included employment in Ohio,
Indiana and Missouri.
The next three diaries (Folders 2‑4) concern Lamkin’s service
during the Civil War, including his career as a civilian employee of the
army. There are only a few brief battle
accounts, but the entries offer an itinerary of the marches and countermarches
of the 25th Ohio Infantry in Virginia and South Carolina, his duty with the ambulance corps of the
Army of the Potomac, and service in the quartermaster department in Virginia and Kentucky. The last diary (Folder 5) concerns his last
months of service with the government, his return to Ohio
and marriage to Mattie Fleet, and their removal to Jasper County, Missouri. The postwar entries are somewhat inconsistent
chronologically as entries for 1868 and 1869 are interspersed with those for
1866. The last entry appears to be that
of 23 June 1872. Most of the Missouri entries concern
renovation of the Fleet farm, building a house, farm life, and personal
finances. Beginning in 1869, the entries contain only records of employment
and finances.
Shelf List
for this collection
Index
cards for this collection
Questions? Use our
Researcher Registration Form
Return to
WHMC-Rolla's home page.