“I was never so perplexed and I determined to do all I could to settle the question of running or staying,” he writes on Nov. 18. “Mother and I will stay till further developments.”
In the end, Sherman bypasses Macon, and the emergency eases.
Invalid boy’s diary focus of Library of Congress Civil War exhibit
(Michael Ruane/ THE WASHINGTON POST ) - A little-known diary of invalid teenager, LeRoy Wiley Gresham, who chronicled the Civil War, and his own ailments, from his home in Macon, Ga. He wrote seven volumes that cover from June 1860 to June 9, 1865. He died June 18, 1865 at age 17. The library said the diary apparently never been published.
(Library of Congress) - LeRoy Wiley Gresham, sixth plate ambrotype between 1854 and 1865.
In February 1865, near the close of the war, LeRoy reports that a new slave has been brought from the plantation to pull him in his wagon, because his previous “valet” is “played out.”
The new slave is Gulielmus, “vulgarly termed ‘Bill,’” he writes. LeRoy takes a liking to him. “I have been trying to clothe ‘Bill’ in the garments of civilization . . . and have improved his appearance.”
April 9, 1865, brings the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army at Appomattox, all but ending the war. But LeRoy in isolated Macon does not hear about it right away.
It is not until April 20 that he records, with “great excitement,” that the Yankees are on the outskirts of town, and as Macon is “under an armistice no resistance will be made.”
Union forces duly occupy the town, and on April 22, he writes:
“When we awoke this morning . . . it was hard to believe that we were under U.S. rule. But the clanking sabre and the tramp of the horses teaches how stern is the reality. The capitulation of Lee is believed to be true; if so, good-bye C.S.A.”
He doesn’t hear of Abraham Lincoln’s April 14 assassination until April 25, and notes it without comment.
By May, his health begins to falter, and the family’s slaves begin to leave.
“It is supposed that all the negroes will be declared free in a day or two,” he writes on May 22. Eight days later, he records that slaves “Howard and Eaveline, being the only servants now, do all the work. My ‘valet’ Bill left this morning . . . (I) am very unwell today and will miss Bill the more.”
LeRoy’s last complete entry is on June 8, 1865. “Nothing definite from Bill as yet, doubtful whether I will ever see him again,” he records.
His final entry, on June 9, is just a fragment, “I am,” followed by a word that is indecipherable.
Beneath that, in someone else’s handwriting, is written, “LeRoy Wiley Gresham, author of this diary, died in Macon. Ga. June 18th 1865.”
ruanem@washpost.com
The Civil War in America
Monday through June 1. Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE. 202-707-5000. www.loc.gov.
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