Michigan Infantry Company K Journal

Assignment #2

Tori Lyle

The journal of the Michigan Infantry Company K can be found in the Civil War collection in the Special Collections. The journal is a large book that spans from August 13, 1864 to 1866. The journal accounts for what happened with the company each day, who died, what their orders were and who descriptive letters were sent to.

In 1864 the Red River Campaign that saw Union forces take control of Arkansas has ended. The Battles of Little Rock and Pine Bluff have ended and Confederate forces have retreated from the area. Both the Battle of Little Rock and the Battle of Pine Bluff were small engagements. Union forces only lost 72 men at the battle of Little Rock and 52 at Pine Bluff which is small in comparison to the casualties at Gettysburg and Antietam. Guerrillas are still prevalent and the journal shows that the company encountered guerrilla fighters on Sept 4, 1864.

Company K of the Michigan Infantry is sent to Little Rock, Arkansas in August of 1864 as a garrison force, someone to keep the peace and defend against and Confederate plan to retake the territory. Company K was not serving on the front-lines but that does not mean that no one died. Some in the company died of sickness such as the example of “Private David Plummer died of acute diarrhea” (Company K, 1864-1866) in August of 1864. Also during the Company’s encounter with the guerrillas one soldier is wounded and another killed. There was also an accident of a gun misfiring and killing a man on an expedition. 

Many of the entries state that descriptive letters are being mailed to certain individuals. These are similar to muster rolls as they have information about each soldier in the company such as their age, name, rank and their term of enlistment. Since Lincoln had enacted the Draft Act of 1863 these letters can be thought of as a draft notice.

I found this journal interesting because it showed the life of civil war soldiers that were not on the front-lines and their daily lives.

Sources:

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/ar/ar010a.html

http://www.nps.gov/abpp/battles/ar011.htm

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h249.html