Description
3" x 4 3/4" pocket diary for the year 1863, approximately 112 pages, with handwritten pencil entries on 38 pages from January 10 through June 6. Includes a list of expenses in memoranda section at end of calendar. Entries are in faint pencil, and some pages are partially erased. The entries cover his regiment's movements and encampments in Virginia in the winter and spring of 1863, leading up to the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6).
Textured cardboard cover is partially torn.
Samuel Bigelow, a butcher by trade in Conway, Mass., enlisted on July 20, 1862 and mustered on August 30, 1862 with the 37th Mass, Regiment. He was discharged for disability on December 31, 1863 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Accession folder includes additional information on Bigelow and his family supplied by the donor.