1905 SUPERB ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT RETROSPECTIVE JOURNAL OF THE DETAILED AND ENGROSSING BIOGRAPHY OF CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN MATTHEW JANSEN, BY HIS LOVING BROTHER AND COMRADE IN ARMS WHO SERVED AND FOUGHT IN OVER 100 BATTLES AND SKIRMISHES WITH HIM

THEODORE JANSEN, MATTHEW JANSEN

Published by QUINCY, ILLINOIS, 1919

About this Item

On offer is a truly remarkable Civil War document: A deeply detailed and fascinating retrospective journal of Matthew Jansen, Captain of the Union Army's 27th Illinois Regiment during the Civil War. It was handwritten in 1905 by one of Jansen's brothers, Theodore, who served alongside of him. It is over 60 over sized pages long and very densly filled with original content some of which was published in "The Biography and Reminiscences of Matthew Jansen, 1905". [The manuscript was oddly created; some portions in a cardboard folio some sewn and otherwise attached forming double sheets. The brittleness of the paper resulted in some loss to the edge and joins but since we received the item a master conservator has made repairs and stopped the losses.] It gives significant first hand details about the life he lived and the many battles fought with the 27 Illinois Regiment. It begins the years before the War in Quincy, Illinois (where Jansen and his brother were from) to the enlistment of Jansen as a private until 1865 all the way to fighting with General Sherman in Atlanta. It is an incredible piece of American history with in depth and vivid descriptions of battles fought, lives lived, and sights seen. Theodore writes lovingly and engrossingly about his brother, constantly praising his skills and acumen in battle and in life. Much of the diary are the facts of battle, but there are also passages that speak of why the brother's are fighting the war in the first place. They seem staunchly anti-slavery. Speaking on the Emancipation Proclamation, the journal reads: "no thank God its dead yes slavery now from this day over is dead, Lincoln's Proclamation killed it…one an undivided Democrat and Republican Volunteer Soldiers who are now going to give a backbone to the Emancipation Proclamation by going on Picket Guard…" There are also passages that describe in horrid detail the horrors of war, death, hunger, and disease. There are harrowing passes of the suffering brought up all (soldier, civilian and even the horses) during the bloodiest war in U.S. history. Here is a very small portion of what is in this incredible journal: "Kansas border ruffianism was republished daily and constantly inferred to either for or against both political parties until October 13th, 1859 the great political orators Abraham Lincoln and Steven A Douglas arrived in Quincy and next day they engaged in a joint debate which attracted thousands of both parties from far and near and the amount of light their joint debate defused…subject was certainly of the greatest value to all who heard it, understandingly as it clearly defined the position of the south and the north…Brother Matthew had the advantage of most young men of that age as his experience at the P House at Leavenworth Kansas had taught him many things…and when abruptly after the Lincoln and Douglas debate a polished club known as the 'Wide Awakers' was organized become one of the principal aids in formation and was thereafter elected by a large majority as its First Lieutenant…" (The Wide Awakes was a teen and young adult organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election in the United States.) "The Captain of this Wide Awake Company was Joshua R Wood, son of Gov John Wood of Illinois, a man of fine military training and almost daily did he drill his military company during the spring and summer of 1860… The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency did not at all quite the public of the South nor a very large number of our people here in Quincy…" The Civil War begins shortly after: "three days later came the Proclamation of the President calling for Seventy Five thousand volunteer soldiers, and at once the Old Mexican War hero Captain B.M. Prentiss of Quincy began the work of enrolling young able bodied men on that same Saturday afternoon…Thousands of people accompanied our march to the train and the city of Quincy seemed aflame with patriotism, cheer after cheer w.

Seller Inventory # 0009030

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 1905 SUPERB ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT RETROSPECTIVE JOURNAL OF THE DETAILED AND ENGROSSING BIOGRAPHY OF CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN MATTHEW JANSEN, BY HIS LOVING BROTHER AND COMRADE IN ARMS WHO SERVED AND FOUGHT IN OVER 100 BATTLES AND SKIRMISHES WITH HIM
• Publisher: QUINCY, ILLINOIS
• Publication Date: 1919
• Condition: Fair
• Book Type: Manuscript
• Seller catalogs:
  • 20th Century Manuscript
  • 20th Century Diary
  • Books and Manuscripts General Overview