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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (3 items) |
| Abstract | Herbert Eugene Valentine (1841-1917) was a private in Company F of the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers, who served in the United States Army between 1861 and 1864 in eastern Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The collection includes a diary, pencil and watercolor sketches, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and maps, all contained in two manuscript volumes of Herbert E. Valentine. Valentine's diary discusses the subjects of many of his sketches. It also comments on church services, blacks he encountered, daily life among officers and enlisted men, Confederate deserters, life in Norfolk, Va., the career of General Charles Adam Heckman, and other matters. There are 184 sketches picturing towns, buildings, ships, bridges, fortifications, and everyday life at military bases. Locations with numerous sketches include Beaufort, Morehead City, and New Bern, N.C., and Hilton Head and Saint Helena Island, S.C. Seven color maps pertain to the operations of the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Correspondence consists of four letters relating to Valentine's military activities in 1861. The Addition of July 2011 consists of a scrapbook of drawings, photographs, and lists of the activities and members of the 18th Army Corps, Department of North Carolina, compiled for General Charles Adam Heckman on his 70th birthday in 1892 by Herbert E. Valentine. |
| Creator | Valentine, Herbert E. (Herbert Eugene), b. 1841. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical
Information
Herbert Eugene Valentine, born in South Danvers (now Peabody) Massachusetts, on 18 January 1841, was the son of Elmer and Mary C. (Walker) Valentine. His father was a schoolmaster. The family moved to Salem where Valentine graduated from the Browne School and the old English High School. He worked for D.W. Bowdoin, a photographer, after graduating from high school.
Valentine enlisted in the United States Army on 5 October 1861, at Salem. On 18 October 1861, he was mustered into Company F, 23rd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers at Lynfield. Valentine served as a clerk and occasionally drew military maps. His artwork presumably was not produced for official purposes.
Valentine first was sent to Annapolis, Md., and from there he was shipped to the coast of North Carolina, where he took part in the expedition against Roanoke Island. Valentine then was involved in the New Bern campaign and experienced combat in small battles at Whitehall, Kinston, and Southwest Creek, N.C.
By August 1863, Valentine was stationed in New Bern, N.C., where he served as a clerk in General Heckman's First Division Headquarters. Valentine also served briefly at nearby Morehead City, Carolina City, and Beaufort. At some point before 1864, his regiment was at Hilton Head and Saint Helena Island, S.C., and then returned to New Bern.
In September 1863, Valentine went home to Salem on furlough, visiting Jersey City, New York City, and Boston on the way. On his return to duty, he was sent to Newport News, Va., where the 23d Massachusetts had been transferred in his absence. In January 1864, Valentine was serving at Getty's Station near Portsmouth. In May 1864, Valentine's regiment sailed up the James River to City Point and took part in the siege of Petersburg.
Valentine did not re enlist at the expiration of his service and was discharged from the army on 16 October 1864.
Available details of the remainder of Valentine's life are sketchy. He married, had one son and one daughter, and spent the remainder of his life in West Somerville, Mass., occupation unknown, where he died on 17 June 1917. Valentine was active in veterans organizations, and in 1896 he published Story of Company F, 23d Massachusetts Volunteers in the War For The Union 1861-1865.
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Scope and Content
The collection includes a diary, pencil, and watercolor sketches, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and maps, all contained in two manuscript volumes of Herbert E. Valentine, a soldier in the United States Army serving from 1861 to 1864 in eastern Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Herbert E. Valentine's diary discusses the subjects of many of his sketches. It also comments on church services, blacks he encountered, daily life among officers and enlisted men, Confederate deserters, life in Norfolk, Va., the career of General Charles Adam Heckman, and other matters. There are 184 sketches picturing towns, buildings, ships, bridges, fortifications, and everyday life at military bases. Locations with numerous sketches include Beaufort, N.C., Morehead City, N.C., and New Bern, N.C., and Hilton Head, S.C., and Saint Helena Island, S.C. Seven color maps pertain to the operations of the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Correspondence consists of four letters relating to Herbert E. Valentine's military activities in 1861.
The Addition of July 2011 consists of a scrapbook of drawings, photographs, and lists of the activities and members of the 18th Army Corps, Department of North Carolina, compiled for General Charles Adam Heckman on his 70th birthday in 1892 by Herbert E. Valentine. The scrapbook spans the years 1862-1864 and includes an itinerary of battles and events; sketches of headquarters and encampments; lists of clerks, orderlies and soldiers; a small photograph of Valentine; a photograph of soldiers in Morehead City, N.C., 1863; and a photograph of the clerks of headquarters, Red Star Brigade, New Bern, N.C., 1863.
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Volumes, 1861-1864.
Original volumes are closed due to extreme fragility. Researchers must use the microfilm copy.
Note that original titles have, for the most part, been retained.
| Folder 1 |
Volume 1: Scrapbook/Sketchbook, 81 numbered leaves #04397, Series: "Volumes, 1861-1864." Folder 1Military Orders, Reports, Etc.: There are about 60 items in this category, 1862 1864, with one item from 1892. Valentine collected these items when he served as a clerk in the headquarters of Heckman's Division of the 18th Army Corps in coastal North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, from 1862 to 1864. These include copies of general orders (printed and written), rosters, circulars, statistics, accounts, casualty lists, passes, and reports by southern Unionists and refugees about living conditions within Confederate lines and about the design and strength of Confederate fortifications around Wilmington, North Carolina. The military correspondence is located on the following pages: 4 8, 10 18, 20 25, 28, 33 34, 45, 61, and 72. Newspaper Clippings: There are about 18 newspaper clippings, mostly dating from the war years, but a few from the 1890s. The clippings include obituaries, poems, copies of military orders, accounts of battles (mostly in North Carolina and Virginia), accounts of reunions of veterans (mainly in the 1890s), articles detailing the military operations of the 23d Massachusetts regiment, and pictures of Union generals. The newspaper clippings are located on the following pages: 4 6, 10, 14 17, 21, 23 28, and 30 32. Maps: There are seven maps, all in color. Six of these were drawn by Valentine, and all pertain to the operations of the 23d Massachusetts Regiment in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. They are as follows:
Sketches: There are about 184 sketches by Valentine of buildings, ships, bridges, fortifications, and everyday life at military bases. Valentine made birds eye view sketches of the towns in which he was stationed, as well as sketches of their principal buildings such as hospitals, churches, warehouses, and private residences that served as military command headquarters and as officers' quarters. Sketches appear on the following pages.
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| Folder 2 |
Volume 2: Diary and autograph book, 11-17 November 1861, 7 August 1863-28 May 1864, 4-9 September 1864 #04397, Series: "Volumes, 1861-1864." Folder 2The diary is in three parts. The earliest part of the volume is not strictly a diary; it consists of copies of four letters from Valentine to his parents written between 11 and 17 November 1861. In these letters, Valentine described his trip by ship and rail from Lynfield, Massachusetts, to Annapolis, Maryland, where his regiment encamped and joined the Union naval expedition then preparing for an invasion of eastern North Carolina. The remaining two parts of the diary cover Valentine's tour of duty in eastern North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. During most of his military career, Valentine served as a clerk in division headquarters, with living conditions much better and daily work routine more interesting than the average soldier's. His clerical duties were episodic: when monthly, quarterly, or special reports came due he was very busy for a few days, but, between these periods, Valentine had a great deal of free time to roam about the base and surrounding area and make sketches of anything or anyone that drew his interest. His diary has almost daily entries about the subjects of his sketches. Thus, virtually every sketch in his sketchbook can be dated by diary entries. Valentine attended the services of various Protestant denominations on which he often commented in his diary. He was an avid singer and apparently had a trained voice. His diary is sprinkled with opinions on the quality of church choirs and of public and private vocal entertainers that he encountered. There are observations about blacks their music, dancing, singing, looks, behavior, for example; about entertainment, camaraderie, rowdiness, and other aspects of daily life among the officers and enlisted men; about Confederate deserters and Unionist refugees who told of sufferings at the hands of the "rebels" and of living conditions and military defenses behind Confederate lines, especially around Wilmington, North Carolina; and about life in Norfolk, Virginia. In November 1863, Valentine mentioned seeing Generals Benjamin F. Butler and Ambrose E. Burnside at a Thanksgiving Day celebration. On 16 December 1863, Valentine wrote a description of his role in the battle of White Hall, North Carolina, where he witnessed the almost instant death of two of his friends. On 11 February 1864, Valentine wrote a six page history of General C.A. Heckman's military career from the day he volunteered in Pennsylvania in 1861 through campaigns in eastern North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Valentine noted in March 1864 that General Heckman praised a black cavalry regiment as more valuable to him than two white ones and that white soldiers resented it when the black regiment was merged into a formerly all white brigade. There are no entries between those of 28 May and 4 September. The last entry was made at Hatches Farm near Bermuda Hundred on 9 September 1864 while Valentine's brigade was still engaged in the Petersburg campaign. The last section of Valentine's diary is devoted to autographs (approximately 60 leaves), mostly by junior officers and enlisted men. The hometown of many autographers was noted, and in four instances, a small photograph of the subject was pasted above the name. One of the autographs was by Henry Clay; it was "taken from a house near Drury's Bluff Va, May 15, 1864." |
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Addition of July 2011: 18th Army Corps Scrapbook, 1892.
Scrapbook of drawings, photographs, and lists of the activities and members of the 18th Army Corps, Department of North Carolina, compiled for General Charles Adam Heckman on his 70th birthday in 1892 by Herbert E. Valentine. The scrapbook spans the years 1862-1864 and includes an itinerary of battles and events; sketches of headquarters and encampments; lists of clerks, orderlies and soldiers; a small photograph of Valentine; a photograph of soldiers in Morehead City, N.C., 1863; and a photograph of the clerks of headquarters, Red Star Brigade, New Bern, N.C., 1863.
| Folder 3 |
18th Army Corps Scrapbook, 3 December 1892 #04397, Series: "Addition of July 2011: 18th Army Corps Scrapbook, 1892." Folder 3 |
Processed by: William Thomas Auman and Roslyn Holdzkom, 1995.
Encoded by: Eben Lehman, April 2006.
Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, February 2010.
Updated by: Matt Dailey, January 2012, because of addition.
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