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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Frank Smith Reader, Soldier, Civil War Diary, A&M 1720, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Frank Smith Reader, also given as Francis Smith Reader, was born in 1842 in Greenfield (now Coal Center), Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 at the age of eighteen. Despite lingering illness from a case of poisoning in 1862, Reader served three full years with his regiment. He escaped after his June 1864 capture and was mustered out of the service on 28 July 1864 on account of poor health.

After the war, Reader returned to Pennsylvania. He tried his hands at several careers, including brief stints as a schoolteacher and as a minister. He found success first as Chief Deputy Collector for the Internal Revenue Service and later as a newspaper publisher. He entered upon a newspaper career at New Brighton, Pennsylvania in 1874, publishing the Beaver Valley News , and later became editor and proprietor of his own paper, the Daily News . In 1890, he published The History of the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry . He was also active in post-war Republican politics.

Company I of the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry was originally organized in Reader's hometown of Greenfield, Pennsylvania. The company was fully enlisted on 27 April 1861; however, the quota for three months men from Pennsylvania had already been filled. The Loyal Government of Virginia had not yet reached its quota for enlistments and Company I was mustered into service on 10 July 1861 at Camp Carlile in Wheeling, (West) Virginia and became part of the Second West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. This regiment would become the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry on 26 January 1864 by order of the Secretary of War. Company I mustered out on 28 July 1864.

Scope and Contents

Diary of Frank Smith Reader of Brighton, Pennsylvania, who was a private in the Fifth West Virginia Cavalry, Company I. The diary covers the period of 10 March to 25 June 1864 and contains ca. 80 pp. Reader, for the period covered by this diary, was on detached duty from his Regiment, serving as a clerk at General Franz Sigel's and General David Hunter's headquarters in Martinsburg, Cumberland, and in the field. Reader participated in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 and was present at New Market, Piedmont, and Lynchburg.

Diary entries comment on the weather; Reader's moods and his opinions of his work; performances by military bands; daily duties; reports of rebel activity, particularly bushwackers; violent and unusual incidents among the troops; conduct of officers; troop movements; skirmishes and battles; the natural beauty of the countryside; rations and living off of the land; and the scorched earth policy employed during the Valley Campaigns, including the destruction of southern railroads, bridges, and other infrastructure and public buildings.

Highlights from the diary include:

10 March - Reader begins the diary while in garrison at Martinsburg

15 March - General Sigel visits troops at Martinsburg

17 March - W.W. Averell forms a Division of Cavalry

18 March - General Stahl visits Martinsburg

28 March - order is given for detached men to return to their regiments; Reader will be returning to the Fifth, glad

29 March - traveling from Martinsburg to Cumberland; meets with Colonel George R. Latham of the Fifth

31 March - traveling to meet the Fifth at Patterson Creek, happy; detailed to be clerk at Department Headquarters; "we are bound to fight mit Sigel now"

1 April - "All fools day"; heard a speech in favor of emancipation in Maryland, impressed

2 April - speech by former Governor Thomas at Belvidere hall

4 April - Reader begins work as clerk and finds it agreeable

9 April - visited by Vice President Hannibal Hamlin; much celebration

10 April - arrival of the Ringgold Battalion

14 April - Reader goes to the theater and enjoys it greatly

25 April - body of a Maryland soldier brought home, having been starved to death in Richmond

27-29 April - Headquarters moved from Cumberland to Martinsburg; Reader then follows General Sigel to Winchester, Va

1 May - Union troops receive a mixed reception from the citizens of Winchester

9 May - "'Porte Crayon' [David Hunter Strother] is riding with us taking sketches &c. and I hope will sketch and publish for the amusement and interest of his admirers"

14-16 May - [Battle of New Market] arrival at Mount Jackson, hard fighting followed by a retreat; despite Smith's previous confidence, things go poorly

21-22 May - replacement of General Sigel by General Hunter

26 May - Reader reports that a house was burned down in Strausburg; orders to burn down any house from which a guerrilla fires

28 May - "Got me a horse to day. He is a regular Pegassus. He is about as long as one of Abe's rails and as intricate as one of his proclamations"

30 May - Reader reports that Newtown was burned as a warning to bushwackers; burying Union dead; his opinion of Sigel is falling, while his opinion of Hunter improves

5 June - Battle of Piedmont; death of Confederate General W.E. Jones; rebel officers taken prisoner

6 June - occupation of Staunton; "some Union sentiment"; shown by citizens; Reader's good opinion of General Hunter; makes record of prisoners, cannon, and arms taken

11 June - burning of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)

12 June - burning of public building in Lexington, Virginia, including residence of Governor Letcher; makes record of trophies taken, including books, pieces of Revolutionary War era artillery, and a bronze statue of Washington

17-19 June - Reader reports being the first Yankees to arrive in that part of the country [near Sweet Springs, West Virginia]; residents very frightened of them

21 June - Reader criticizes the men of the 100 days militia

23-25 June - captured along with 12 others while en route to White Sulphur Springs; taken under guard to Calihan's Station and then to prison at Covington; the possibility of being sent South.

The last pages of the diary contain two poems and the date "Nov. 30th 1865"

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War - Union soldiers.
• Civil War - West Virginia 5th Cavalry, Company I.
• Civil War - White Sulphur Springs.
• Civil War -- War diaries
• Civil War battles - Piedmont.
• Civil War battles.
• Diaries - Civil War.
• Diaries and journals.
• Reader, Frank Smith
• Smith, John L.
• Sweet Springs.
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
• Weather
• White Sulphur Springs (W. Va.)