Beschreibung:

in an 8vo ledger book with brown buckram boards and tape-repaired spine with laminated albumen cdv uniformed portrait of Lt. Miles on front board with 110 manuscript pages with 4 blank pages. Miles, a Circleville, Ohio native, mustered into Co. A of the 114th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in September 1862, was promoted to 2nd Lt. and transferred into the 53rd U.S. Colored Infantry in July of 1863. He mustered out after the war in March of 1866. The diary seems to be his attempt to organize notes and diaries from the war period, most entries date between 1863 and 1867. The first pages are accounts of both Co. H of the 53rd USC Infy, and a few pages postdating his mustering out (April and Dec. 1866). The last page in this section records sales of horses and mules in the weeks after his service. There are about 7 pages cut out of the diary followed by Miles' family history. He records his father's birth, marriage, etc. There is a copy of his father's obituary from the newspaper glued to the front pastedown. This lengthy obituary notes that The subject of this sketch [the senior Miles] was inclined to the adipose, was one of ten brothers whose combined weight was over two thousand pounds, and at one time he weighed over three hundred pounds. Let's not return to this "Golden Age" of commemorating the deceased! Miles then gives a short biography of family members and records a few deaths and marriages. In his own biography, Gideon notes all of his promotions (in the third person), and that he Remained the same [1st Lieut, June 1864] untill He was Mustered out of the Service of the U.S. He was wounded at St. Charles Ark. Nov. 25th 1864, the Ball passing the Head exterminating the left Eye. The following section appears to be a diary he kept between Aug. 10 and Aug. 20, 1863 while stationed at Millikins Bend, LA. Most entries consist of a few lines including weather and health observations typical of the day. The only excitement during this period was reports of Rebels behind them, although no attacks occurred, and on the 16th he notes that Rebbles reported to have vanished from their former posision at richmond La near Roundaway Bayou. What follows this is a 25-page account of his journey by river steamer from Vicksburg to Cincinnati from Feb. 16 until Feb. 25, 1867. He boarded the steamer Emerald in late afternoon, but the ship did not leave until well after dark since she was still loading cargo. He laments that he would have liked to see the condition of Millikins Bend a short distance upstream from Vicksburg a year and a half after he was last stationed there, but by the time they passed this landmark, it was too dark to see. He mentions plantations along the riverbanks and at every town he counts the churches, or notes the lack thereof. He notes the steamers that they pass along the way (Lexington and St. Charles). Two days into his journey, as they reached Greenville (MS), he describes what he calls the "Great Steamboat disaster." [P]reviously I seen the reck of a Boat but did not know any thing of the loss on Board. But vary soon after I heard the loss or near tha Nomber, as some of the Passengers that come of the lossed steamer told Me all about the whole affair which was vary distructive. The Nomber lossed was about (50) Fifty more or less. The former Captain (& Part owner) 1st Cleark, 2nd Cleark & 3rd Cleark, Besides several of the others officers & Crew & Passengers are included. It was a terable thing to Behold. As I seen the Reck. Barrells. Boxes. & Chairs floating down the River. Although today most associate the loss of the Sultana with the appelation "The Great Steamboat Disaster," the one Miles encountered was the explosion of the boilers on the David White Feb. 17, 1867. Boiler explosions were always a risk, and one might be especially nervous about these events as a passenger on another vessel. The Emerald picked up a few survivors at the next small plantation landing and continued upriver. At Memphis a few days later,