Items in Indiana Magazine of History

Full Citation: James Comfort Patten, “An Indiana Doctor Marches with Sherman: The Diary of James Comfort Patten,” ed. Robert G. Athearn, Indiana Magazine of History 49, no. 4 (December 1953): 405-422.
Home: Gibson County (Princeton)
Year: 1864
Regiment: 58th Indiana Volunteer Infantry

Abstract: Patten (1826-1903) served as surgeon to the 58th between July 4 and December 31, 1864, while the regiment was involved in taking and occupying Atlanta. He writes mostly of his strong feelings about the necessity of a Northern draft and his observations of occupied Atlanta (particularly hungry women and children). He was mustered out in Savannah on Dec. 31, 1864.

• Sample Text:
  1. “I hope some men I could name may have to come out [enlist]. I want to see them with a gun on their shoulder…I wonder how they will stand fire. I would very much like to see them tried.” (Atlanta, Sept. 5, 1864, p. 409)
  2. “A good many women came in as usual to trade for something to eat. Some of them bring in beans, some chinkapins [chesnuts] and muscadines [grapes], while some I have reason to believe resort to more questionable means of obtaining the desired food. But who can blame them, when their children are starving.” (Atlanta, Sept. 26, 1864, p. 413)
• LC Subject Headings:
  1. United States. Army. Indiana Infantry Regiment, 58th (1861-1865)
  2. Atlanta Campaign, 1864
  3. Savannah (Ga.) History Siege, 1864