Collection is open for research. Fragile handwritten documents. Handle with care.
Microfilm copy, Reel #00056 Civil War Vertical File: transcript, May 24 - August 12, 1861. Full transcript available on Library server.
This collection is arranged chronologically into seven folios.
Henry Bassford Whittington, c.1812 - 1884, was a clerk for an Alexandria mercantile business during the Civil War. Previously he lived in Dinwiddie County for some period of time. He also enjoyed a local reputation as a poet and his work was occasionally published in the Alexandria Gazette during the latter half of the nineteenth century. During the Federal occupation of Alexandria, he kept a diary of nearly daily entries for the period of May 24, 1861 to March 1, 1865. At the time of the 1870 Federal Census, he was living in the Mansion House Hotel. Whittington died in Alexandria on September 25, 1884.
[Item identification], Henry B. Whittington Diary, MS011, Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria, Va.
The diary begins on the date of Federal occupation of Alexandria by Union troops, May 24, 1861. Entries describe events related to the Civil War, the occupying troops, and attitudes of the local populace. There is rich detail regarding personnel of the ever-changing occupying force, its disruption of local affairs, and response of the citizens. Local and national events such as major battles, skirmishes, and political occurrences are vividly described. References to persons important to the history of Alexandria and the country for that period are frequent. Sectional opinion of the period toward issues such as slavery, contrabands, and emancipation are also present. Relevant newspaper clippings cut by Whittington are included in Folio 3. The diary ends on April 22, 1865.
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This collection was donated to Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria Library by James Douglas Jr.