Beschreibung:

7.5 x 3 in. leather-bound memo book, inscribed on cover CS Army / Captain / W L Wickham / Pay Department / 1862 - 63 with similar inscriptions on back cover. The entries are dated between November 1, 1862 and March 31, 1863. Captain Watkins Leigh Wickham worked directly under Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Albert J. Smith Chief Paymaster for the Western Department of the Confederacy in the headquarters of General Braxton Bragg. The most interesting entry is dated November 18, 1863, which deals with several million dollars. This entry is two days before the formal merger of Bragg’s Army of the Mississippi with Edmund Kirby Smith’s Army of Kentucky to form the Army of Tennessee, and the large sums of money involved are considered part of this reorganization. The accounting begins with two checks from Major Smith of $4,000,000 and $4,206,896. From this $8.2 million is deducted $4,057,800 for Maurices recpt. Maurice has been identified as Captain James Maurice, on staff in the Paymaster’s Department in Bragg’s headquarters at this time. Records show Capt. Maurice was responsible for transporting large sums of money, and other records show Major Smith sending $500,000 to Jackson Miss., on this date for army pay. That sum is most likely part of the $4 million disbursed to Maurice in this entry. Immediately under this is the entry Transferred to Massengale $200,000. He has been identified as Captain H.T. Massengale, CSA paymaster of Atlanta. The next entry is Transferred to A McVoy $900,000. Records show Captain Alexander McVoy as Chief Paymaster for the Confederate Department of the Gulf, commanded by Major General John Horace Forney at this time. Next is Transferred to Armstead $3,048,000. This person remains unidentified after a search of Confederate Army records. A notation at the bottom of the page gives an amended balance dated December 21, 1862, reporting the inclusion of $300,000 returned by Capt. J. Maurice from the $4,057,800 draft of November 18. Captain Wickham regularly reports on very large sums of money from this point. Noteworthy entries in the balance book include a Captain Miller bringing in $1,333,000 on January 26, 1863, a $500,000 voucher sent out on February 18, 1863, and $250,000 arriving on March 28. On January 31, 1863, Wickham accepted $570,000 from Major W.E. Dyer, identified as quartermaster of McCown’s Division, Hardee’s Corps. This may be in relation to McCown being court-martialed by Bragg over his performance at the Battle of Stone’s River on January 2. Leather-bound soft cover memo book has split at spine, but all pages intact and accounted for. Wickham did not make entries for some dates. Approximately 50 entries, plus some individual deposit entries in pencil from November 1864 Watkins Leslie Wickham (1828-1889) was born in Hanover County, Virginia, the son of a plantation owner. Orphaned as a young man, he later moved to Tennessee. He joined the Confederate Army on November 19, 1861 as a Captain, reporting to Major Albert J. Smith Chief Paymaster of the Army of the Mississippi. He was assigned to General Albert Sidney Johnston’s personal staff days before the general’s death at Shiloh on April 6, 1862. He was then appointed to General William N.R. Beall’s immediate staff as quartermaster of the Cavalry Command of the Army of Mississippi on April 24, 1862. On August 18, he returned to the headquarters of the Army of the Mississippi and Department of the West, now commanded by General Braxton Bragg. He was appointed Assistant Paymaster of Atlanta, Ga. on August 21, 1863, assigned to pay the sick and wounded as well as the paroled soldiers of General Pemberton’s army. In August, he began service as paymaster for the numerous military hospitals between Atlanta, West Point, and Macon, Ga. After the fall of Atlanta, he became paymaster of First Corps of the Army of Tennessee, first under Cheatham, then Hardee. Hardee’s corps surrendered with the rest of J.E. Johnston’s army to General William T. She