We’re continuing with our wrap-up of Cyrus Forwood’s diary project this week. As we wrote last week, Cyrus’ diary entries were typically short, but informative. Combined with contemporary sources like the Delaware State Journal and Statesman newspaper out of Wilmington, Delaware, and secondary source histories of various battles, we were able to learn where the Second Delaware traveled during the first few years of the war.

After Cyrus and his fellow soldiers mustered in Wilmington, Delaware, they trained at Camp Brandywine near Wilmington, during the summer of 1861 before traveling to the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, where they spent late-fall 1861 and most of the winter of 1862. In March 1862 they were transported to Camp Andrew in Baltimore, training again and waiting to be ordered to become part of the Peninsula Campaign of spring and early-summer 1862. The Fighting Blue Hens (a nickname they gained at the Battle of Antietam) fought in the Battle of Fair Oaks, as well as the Seven Days Battles of June and July 1862.

When Cyrus fell ill with what was probably dysentery in July 1862, he was transported from Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, to Point Lookout, Maryland, by steamer ship. We learned of his frustrationswith the hospital: sick men dying off quickly and being buried with little fanfare, meager rations, and finding himself sicker after a month of staying at the hospital than when he arrived. Once he recovered, he walked from Washington, D.C. to Sharpsburg, Maryland, a distance of nearly 70 miles, to try to catch up with Company A of the Second Delaware. He missed the Battle of Antietam by a day; when he was still several miles away he could hear the “roar of artillery”.

After the Battle of Antietam, the Army of the Potomac marched to Bolivar Heights, on the hills surrounding Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, to recover. November 1862 saw the Second Delaware marching through the Blue Ridge Mountains to reach Fredericksburg, Virginia. Following the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Mud March, he wrote with far more frequency; he wrote brief entries every day in March. His final entries recorded the weather and the organized camp activities that General Hooker instated in the winter camps of drills and dress parades to prepare the men for engagements that would come in the spring.

The Second Delaware continued fighting in battles through the end of the war. They saw action at the Battle of Chancellorsville in April 1863 before moving on to Gettysburg in early July. In the Fall of 1863, they fought at the Battles of Bristoe Station and Mine Run before going into winter camp. In May 1863, they were involved in the Battles of Spotsylvania Courthouse, a series of engagements near Spotsylvania, Virginia, that followed the Battle of the Wilderness.

We appreciate you following along with this project for the past two years! Although the end of the diary marks the natural end to our project, we will continue blogging occasionally on the anniversaries of events that we know Cyrus  participated in. Check back in July 2013 for a few posts on the Second Delaware’s role in the Battle of Gettysburg and to see how Cyrus and the Second Delaware fared during that battle. We know that Cyrus died in May 1864 at the Battle of Po River in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and so we will also be posting in May 2014 to commemorate that battle and Cyrus’ life.

As we mentioned in our last post on March 31,  Cyrus’ diary ended on March 31, 1861. Perhaps he started writing in a new diary that has not survived or is still privately held, or maybe he decided to stop keeping a diary. Regardless, thanks to the regiment’s compiled service records, which are available online through the Delaware Public Archives, we know he continued serving with Company A of the Second Delaware through May 1864, when he was killed in the Battle of Po River in Virginia.

The Cyrus Forwood project began in Spring 2011 when the Delaware Public Archives, in conjunction with Delaware’s Government Information Center, endeavored to share the Civil War diary of Delaware’s own Cyrus F. Forwood with the public. As we followed Cyrus’ diary, posting the diary entries 150 years later to the day from when they were written, we used this blog, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and a Google Map to share the observations and notes that Cyrus recorded in his diary. Over the course of nearly two years, readers have been able to follow his travels and learn about the day-to-day life of a Delaware Soldier in the Civil War.

Cyrus initially mustered into Company A, Second Delaware Volunteers in Wilmington, Delaware, for a three-month term on June 12, 1861. He was a twenty-five year old farmer from the Brandywine Hundred section of New Castle County Delaware. We don’t have any pictures of Forwood in the holdings at the Delaware Public Archives, but we do know he was five feet, seven inches tall, had grey eyes and light hair and complexion. He lived on the family farm the Brandywine Hundred Section of New Castle County with his mother, father, and two sisters prior to joining the Second Delaware.

Most of Cyrus’ diary entries are matter-of-fact and to the point. He included notes on superior officers, camp life, and battles, but wrote very little in the way of his emotions or descriptions of battles. We don’t get a good idea of how he felt about the war or being away from family, but he did accurately record each time the Second Delaware moved camps or were engaged in battles.

Check back next week to learn what happened next for Cyrus and the Second Delaware through the rest of the war.

Diary Entry:
Snow 4 in. deep this morning. Rain to day. Lt. Tom Moore has resigned. glad he is gone. hope all the nuisances will go soon.

See the scanned diary page.

More Information:
Lieut. Tom Moore had previously returned to camp on March 16, after being absent without leave from the regiment since September.

Although Cyrus continued to serve with the Second Delaware until May 1864, today marks the last entry in this diary. The rest of the pages in the diary list Majors and Generals who were in the Army as of May 1862, a comparison of soldiers’ pay between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, a listing of officers of the 2nd Regiment, Delaware Volunteers, and a list of soldiers discharged for disability.

Please check back during the next few weeks as we discuss what we’ve learned about Cyrus’ experiences as a soldier during the first few years of the Civil War.

Diary Entry:
Ice 1/2 inch thick last night. Dress Parade.

See the scanned diary page.

Diary Entry:
Cold wind. cloudy day. Inspection. Dress Parade.

See the scanned diary entry.

Diary Entry:
Rain. Dress Parade.

See scanned diary page.

Diary Entry:
Pleasant day. Inspection by Cap. Little, one of Zook’s staff.

Skirmish drill. Dress Parade.

See the scanned diary entry.

Diary Entry:
Rain in morning. Pleasant evening. Skirmish drill.

See the scanned diary page.

Diary Entry:
Pleasant day. Comp. drill. Skirmish drill by overgrown boy. Dress parade.

See the scanned diary page.

Diary Entry:
Last night was uncomfortably warm. dull morning. Division out to see three men drummed out of service. Skirmish drill.

See scanned diary page.

More Information:
“Drumming Out” was the act of being dishonorably discharged to the sound of a drum. During the Civil War, the soldier’s uniform may have had its insignias stripped and he would have been paraded in front of his fellow soldiers before being officially discharged.