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CIVIL WAR - The Red River Campaign. Manuscript cap

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[N.p.: N.d., c. 1870]. 23 looses sheets on lined paper, recto only (250 x 200 mm). Condition: edgewear "the shouting of the contending armies made a picture of inferno, such as the evil one himself might admire" -- a long, battle-filled account of the red river campaign from the perspective of a union soldier. Frank M. Goodman enlisted as a private in Company K of the 117 Illinois regiment in August of 1862 and mustered out as a Seargant in 1865. The manuscript begins: "After our return from Vicksburg, from the Meridian Campaign, which occured in Feby. 1864, Gen Sherman sent the right wing of our Corps, commanded by Gen. A. J. Smith, and a detachment of the 17th Corps, under command by Gen. T. Kilby Smith, to co-operate with Gen. Banks in his proposed Red River expedition, whose chief objective was the capture of Shreveport." Goodman continues to describe the boat journey towards Shreveport, including help received from a French village encountered on the way, but Goodman wastes no time in describing the action he saw there, beginning March 15th, in the first days of the campaign: "The first explosion of artillery we supposed to be a salute from our fleet... but we were soon undeceived when the shells began to explode in our front... The batteries opened on the works and were answered by the enemy's heavy guns which they had previously captured from the ram Queen of the West." About a later fight, he writes "The enemy's were concealed until the 13th Corps marched into a trap set for them ... The Rebels attacked with great fury... The carnage raged for more than two hours..." Some humorous moments occur, such as with the return of General Banks on about April 7, Goodman's company was nick-named "the Guerillas - sobriquet applied to our command ... on account of our unkempt appearance and breezy western manners" and a night of port drinking at the abandoned home of a local Mayor. Numerous other battles and marches occur, each painstakingly described with details of the battles, locations of camps, the weather, and reports of casualties and prisoners. The manuscript ends, "We bade joyous farewell to Banks and his ill-fated expedition where we had toiled and suffered so much and gained so little. We were cheated out of the Atlanta campaign and the march to the sea, but we afterwards shared in the glories of Nashville and the capture of Mobile. We arrived at Vicksburg, May 24th - all worn out, ragged and dirty."

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