Information Sheet
R Sharp, Preston
T., 1831-1915.
1204 Collection, ca. 2004.
Two folders.
These are an annotated Civil War diary and a biography
of Preston T. Sharp, a resident of Harrison County, Missouri,
and Fall River County, South Dakota, and first lieutenant of
Company H, 12th Missouri Cavalry.
Edited and compiled by Chuck and Nova Sharp Bolton, the collection
includes the story of Sharp’s life, and his diary covering the Nashville
campaign, December 1864—January 1865, and the Powder River Expedition in Wyoming and Montana
in 1865.
Preston T. Sharp was born in Claiborne County, Tennessee,
on 2 February 1831. By the 1840 and 1850
censuses, respectively, he and his family were in Macoupin and Morgan counties
in Illinois. Sharp married Elizabeth Nunns in Morgan County
in 1853. They moved to a farm near
Eagleville in Harrison County,
Missouri, in 1856. During the Civil War, Sharp served as sergeant
of the Harrison County Home Guards, lieutenant in the Harrison County Battalion
of six-month militia, and captain of Company G, 57th Enrolled
Missouri Militia. In 1864, he enlisted
in the 12th Missouri Cavalry then being organized at Benton Barracks
near St. Louis
and was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company H in February 1864. Sharp spent most of his time in the 12th
Missouri Cavalry as acting company commander.
He was appointed captain of Company M, but was never officially
commissioned. As a first lieutenant,
Sharp was mustered out with the regiment at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
in April 1866. After the war, he lived
in Harrison County, Missouri
and Fall County, South Dakota. He spent the last ten years of his life in
the State Soldier’s Home in Yankton, South
Dakota, where he died in 1915.
The material concerning Preston T. Sharp was compiled
by Chuck Bolton and Nova Sharp Bolton (a great grandchild of Sharp). The collection consists of a biography of
Sharp, with reproductions of salient documents, and his diary of service in
the 12th Missouri Cavalry, “copied in its entirety from the
original” owned by Bill Slade, another great grandchild of Preston T. Sharp. The diary includes a record of Company H’s
“company fund” from May 1864 to February 1865, and brief daily entries
concerning the company’s activities during the Nashville campaign, 15 December
1864—19 January 1865, and the Powder River Expedition in Wyoming and Montana, 1
July-26 September 1865.
Index Cards for this collection
Shelf List for this collection
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