For Freedom and HumanityThe Civil War Memorandum of Owen Thomas Wright, 14th Indiana Volunteers
1861: War BeginsTell Owen's story through Civil War history Understand the Civil War through Owen's story
The recently discovered Journals of Owen Thomas Wright, 14th Indiana Volunteers, provide a fresh perspective on the Civil War through the pen of a young soldier who experienced almost the entire war. You can read the complete summary of Owen's story here:
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1861: The War Begins
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- © 2020 by Brent A. Duncan, PhD
The taste of Battle at Rich Mountain made the youth of southern Indiana eager to “test their punk,” as Owen wrote. Instead, they marched to the outskirts of the Union Army in a desolate, rugged place called Cheat Mountain.
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- © 2020 by Brent A. Duncan, PhD
The 14th joined forces with General Joseph Reynolds, who had gathered ten regiments near the rebel camp at Greenbrier Bridge. Their purpose was to show their strength and reconnoiter, not to engage in battle. This was a disappointment to many in the 14th Indiana. They were eager to "test their punk," as Owen writes, or to take their turn to "show the rebels how to attack a camp," according to another soldier.
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1864
- Hard fighting to pleasant living: New York draft riot becomes race war
- Captured in the Wilderness
- Coming: Of all of the horrors of the Civil War, prison life is the most terrible
- Escape into the Swamp Wars