Ambrose Armitage Journals

Collection

Identifier: MC 1779

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Content Note

During his lifetime Armitage wrote seven journals. Special Collections has acquired copies of the first two, which were transcribed by Jim Gardner of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The first journal consists of 294 pages of handwritten script on legal size paper. It spans the period June 1859 through early August 1864 and gives an account of the hardships endured by foot soldiers during the Civil War, detailing battles in the Mississippi River Valley including Fredricktown, Corinth, Iuka, Island Number Ten, and Vicksburg. The second journal gives an account dating from mid-August 1864 through December 1868; missing until 1999, it was known as the "lost Civil War diary" before its discovery. Spelling and grammatical mistakes were not corrected during transcription, maintaining the integrity of the memoir.

Dates

1859-1868

Creator

Armitage, Ambrose, 1839-1890 (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

No Use Restrictions Apply.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

Ambrose Armitage was born in 1839 near Manchester, England, the son of Mary and Joseph Armitage. The family settled as pioneers in Dodge County, Wisconsin, on Christmas day, 1846. Devoutly religious, Ambrose attended Fox Lake Female College, a coeducational institution which later became Fox Lake Seminary. There he acquired a "certificate of qualification" to teach school. He also worked as a carpenter for neighbors. He served as a Union soldier in Company D of the 8th Regiment of the Wisconsin Volunteers during the Civil War. He married Alice E. Bottomly on January 1, 1868, and they settled on a farm near Oakfield, Wisconsin. They had four daughters, Mary, Anna, Edna, and Ruby. He died in 1890 at the age of fifty from pneumonia.

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Additional Description

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged in chronological order.

Acquisition Information

The Ambrose Armitage Journals were donated to the Special Collections Department, University of Arkansas Libraries, on June 2008 by David Perdue of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.