Information
Sheet
R Mann, Henry Perrin, 1842‑1922.
455 Civil War diaries, 1862‑1865.
One folder,
photocopies.
These are typescripts of the Civil War
diaries of Henry P. Mann, Co. B Cavalry, 36th Illinois
Infantry. The company was later assigned
to the 15th Illinois Cavalry as Co. K. The diaries cover the Pea Ridge campaign in Missouri and Arkansas,
the occupation of Corinth, Mississippi,
the battle of Chickamauga, the siege of Chattanooga, and the Atlanta
campaign. The entries for 1865 concern
personal business and finances.
Henry Perrin Mann was a resident of Batavia, Illinois. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in the 36th
Illinois Volunteers, a unit which included several of his relatives. Mann joined Cavalry Co. B of the regiment,
one of two such companies attached to the 36th, which was otherwise
an infantry regiment. In 1862 the War
Department began to rationalize anomalous organizations such as cavalry
companies attached to infantry regiments.
On 25 December 1862, Mann’s company was assigned to the 15th
Illinois Cavalry, becoming Co. K of that unit.
As a member of the two different
regiments, Mann took part in several of the major campaigns in the Trans‑Mississippi
and Western theaters. He was with the
Army of Southwest Missouri in 1862 during its successful campaign in Missouri and Arkansas,
and was present, although not engaged, at the Battle
or Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
In the spring of 1862, the 36th Illinois
was transferred to Mississippi and was
involved in the operations which led to the occupation of Corinth.
From Mississippi the regiment moved
into Kentucky, then into Tennessee
and Georgia. Mann was, respectively, part of the Army of
the Ohio, the Army of the Cumberland, and the 20th Army
Corps. He participated in the battles of
Perryville (Ky.), Stones
River (Tenn.),
and Chickamauga (Ga.),
the siege of Chattanooga, and the capture of Atlanta. He left the army at the end of his enlistment
in September 1864 and returned to his home in Illinois, where he married Maria M. Parker
in January 1865. The Manns moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi,
where they engaged in cotton growing in 1865‑1866, but returned to Illinois after one
year. Henry Mann worked in industrial
plants along the Fox River from 1866 to 1879,
then moved with his family to Pottawatomie County, Kansas. The family relocated again in 1900, this time
to a fruit farm in Boulder,
Colorado. Henry Mann died in 1922 and is buried next to
his wife in Green Mountain Cemetery
in Boulder.
Mann left four diaries covering the Civil
War period. The narrative entries begin
on 1 January 1862 and continue through 8 February 1865, with miscellaneous
entries on business and financial matters through December 1865. There are no entries for 29 August 1862 ‑‑
31 August 1863. Mann sent his diaries
home as the volumes were filled, and it seems likely that the diary for the
missing period was lost in transit.
Typescripts of the diaries have been prepared by Shirley (Mann) McLean, a great-granddaughter of Henry Mann. The pages of the typescript are numbered separately
for each individual diary.
The entries in the diaries are brief and
generally include comments on the weather, rations, daily duty, and the state
of Mann’s health. Most of his service in
the cavalry consisted of escorting officers and gathering forage for the
unit's animals. He was with the
regimental baggage train and thus missed action at Pea Ridge, but, as an
escort to the commanding officer, Mann was an eyewitness to the Union defeat
at Chickamauga and victory at Lookout Mountain
at Chattanooga. At the latter, Mann captured nine Confederate
soldiers as he carried dispatches between the front and headquarters. During the lulls between campaigns, he recorded
pleasant visits with relatives and friends in other Illinois units and also several attempts to
improve his time in the army through private enterprise. He lost money on the sales of photographs of
prominent generals, but profited by selling powders for mixing red, blue, and
black inks. The diary for 1865 consists
mostly of memoranda pertaining to business matters and is difficult to
interpret. The only narrative entries
record travel between Illinois and Vicksburg, Mississippi,
in January and February.
Also with the diaries is a copy of a
letter written from Big Shanty, Georgia, 15 June 1864. It is filed following the typescripts of the
diaries. Copies of Henry Mann’s military
service records and other biographical materials have been provided by the
donor and are filed in the Information Folder.
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