Gift of Mary Raine Paxton of Lexington, Virginia
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[Identification of item], Charles A. Raine diary (WLU Coll. 0574), Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
According to Raine's opening inscription, this leather bound pocket diary was a gift to Charles A. Raine from fellow Fort Delaware prisoner Lt. Henry C. Cromwell of the 10th Kentucky Cavalry on August 4, 1864. Rain had just arrived at Fort Delaware as a Confederate prison of war. The diary is written in both pencil and ink. The first twenty pages are Raine's notes on various subjects of English history. After a gap of blank pages, Raine's diary entries begin on January 1, 1865 and continue until his release on June 17, 1865. The final paragraph of the diary section details his journey home to Virginia. Entries vary in length, averaging a few lines per day, and detail the weather, Raine's physical and emotional state and the miseries of prison life, news of fellow prisoners, preaching and religious exercises in the barracks, letters written and recieved, parcels and money received, news concerning the war and prisoner exchanges, and thoughts on his imprisonment and the future. Notable entries include the news of General Robert E. Lee's surrender and his entries mentioning debate topics and results by a debating club formed among prisoners. The next section of the book includes a letter draft to a friend, a number of pages of poetry, miscellaneous literary excerpts including a page of notable lines of Shakespeare, and some accounting records that may be post-war. The final section of the book includes autographs, addresses, and some personal notes from sixty-three fellow prisoners. The diary also had within it leves a number of loose letters received, poems, notes, etc... written by him and other authors during his imprisonment and in the post-war years.
Charles Anderson Raine was born 1841 in Cumberland County, Va. to Richard and Eizabeth "Bettie" Raine. He attended local schools and carried a number of jobs up to his move to News Ferry, Hailifax County, Va. where he was employed until April 1861 when he enlisted in the "Brooklyn Grays," a militia unit of Halifax County that mustered into the 23rd Virginia Infantry Regiment. Raine's fought with the 23rd Virginia through most of the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia between 1861-1864. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant and regimental staff officer. Raine was captured at the Battle of the Wilderness, sent intially to the prison at Point Lookout (Md), and was later transferred to Fort Deleware. He endured a year in Fort Deleware until taking the oath of allegiance to the United States and being released in June 1865. Over the next thirty-five years Charles A. Raine married Elizabeth C. Oliver and fathered seven children. He farmed, worked in various businesses early in the post-war years and eventually became a successful tobacconist in Danville, Va. He died in 1902.
The names, military organizations and home towns of Charles A. Raine's friends and associates while in Fort Delaware prison who signed his diary are below: George R. Waldman (44th Va. Inf., Baltimore, Md.), Robert S. Bowie (37th Va. Inf., Abingdon, Va.), H. S. Coltman (43rd Batt. Va. Cav., (J.S. Mosby), Baltimore, Md.), F. C. Frazier (10th Batt. N.C. Inf., Trinity College, N.C.), J.A. Walker (12th Ga. Inf., of Clinton, Ga.), William M. Sneed (12th N.C. Reg., Granville, N.C.), William K. Stephenson (32nd N.C. Reg., Murfreesboro, N.C.), Zephaniah T. Ross (13th Va. Inf., Culpepper, Va.), George P. Lyle (25th Va. Cav., Christainsburg, Va.), Robert Rion Lucas (1st Va. Cav., Shepherdstown, Va.), J. N. Harrell (1st N.C. Reg., Murfreesboro, N.C.), Leland C. Turner (5th S.C. inf., Spartanburg, S.C.), William Wade (4th Va. Inf., Christiansburg, Va.), Archibald Duncan (6th La. Reg., New Orleans, La.), M. Robertson (23rd Va. Inf., Keysville, Charlotte Co., Va.), S. A. Johnson (23rd Va. Inf., Albemarle Co. Va.), D. D. Wilson (23rd Va. Inf., Richmond, Va.), A. W. Payne (23rd Va. Inf., Fluvanna Co., Va.), H. B. Sanders (23rd Va. Inf., Trevillian Depot, Va.), Thomas D. Moss (23rd Va. Inf., Louisa, Va.), A. Benton Cooke (23rd Va. Inf., Louisa, Va.), C. C. Scott (23rd Va. Inf., Powhatan, Va.), John F. Gregory (12th N.C. Inf., Halifax, N.C.), A. W. Wright (26th Va. Inf. Gloucester, Va.), John Mc_____ (Drillmaster, P. A. C. S., Salisbury, N.C.), E. D. Jett (17th Ark. Inf., Washington, Ark.), Alfred D. Simmons (27th S.C. Vols., Charleston, S.C.), Eugene S. Mitchell (45th Ga. Inf., Clinton, Ga.), R. H. Spencer (26th Va. Inf., King and Queen Co., Va.), Polk Laffoon (10th Ky. Cav., Madisonville, Ky.), G. B. Samuels (10th Va. Inf., Front Royal, Va.), F. G. Eakins (10th Ky. Cav., Henderson, Ky.), Pannell Scott (6th La. Reg., Landry Parrish, La.), D. H. Bowden (10th Ky. Cav., Madisonville, Ky.), E. W. Crocker (26th Ga. Inf., Marion, Ga.), J. H. Handy (10th Ky. Cav., Madisonville, Ky.), F. F. Brown (10th Ky. Cav., Madisonville, Ky.), Clifton C. Burks (4th Va. Inf., Rockbridge, Va.), P. B. Jones (10th Ky. Cav., Memphis, Tenn.), Charles Virgin (41st Ga. Reg., Macon, Ga.), H. C. Cromwell (10th Ky. Cav., Morganfield, Ky.), James C. Saltus (27th S.C. Inf., Charleston, S.C.), J. N. McFarland (5th Va. Inf., Augusta, Va.), A. T. Barclay (4th Va. Inf., Lexington, Va.), Samuel H. Lyle (4th Va. Inf., Rockbridge, Va.), George M. (4th Va. Inf., Wythe Co. Va.), Charles D. Jones, (staff of Gen. Bushrod Johnson, Richmond, Va.), Richard T. Watts (35th Batt. Va. Cav. (White's), Liberty, Va.), John E. Roberts (4th Va. Inf., Grayson, Va.), James Campbell (27th S.C. Inf., Charleston, S.C.), W. Cosby Shane (ADC, John Hunt Morgan's Cavalry, Dallas, Tx.), H. B. Mitchell (Tenn. Cav. Morgan's Command, Williamson Co., Tenn.), Henry A. Allen (9th Va. Inf., Portsmouth, Va.), H. G. Brinkley (41st Va. Inf., Nansemond Co. Va.), R. B. Carr, 43rd N.C. Reg., Magnolia, N.C.), J. C. Blair (1st N.C. Cavalry, Boone. N. C.), W. F. Robbins (48th Ala. Reg.), Charles S. Bradburn (16th Ark. Reg., Fayetteville, Ark.), George W. Finley (56th Va. Inf., Mecklenburg, Va.), Frank White Kelly (50th Va. Inf., Tazewell Co., Va.), George Washington Nelson (William N. Pendleton's Staff, Hanover, Va.), William Tipton (50th Va. Inf., Pulaski, Va.), James W. Gillock (27th Va. Inf., Lexington, Va.), George W. Carter (23rd Ark. Reg., Arkadelphia, Va.)
War-period papers (1864-1865) were found slipped into the diary. There's a note on the history of England and another that recounts Raine's journey from Fort Delaware to Richmond after his release. There is a letter to Charles A. Raine from John Patterson Fitzgerald dated July 24, 1864. Fitzgerald was a commander of the 23rd Virginia Infantry who had been captured and was a prisoner of war sent to Hilton Head, S.C. The letter is written from his prisoner ship in harbor while awaiting his next destination. He mentions a heavy miltary guard, the liklihood of his transfer, a hope for exchange, and the large number of sharks in the vicinity of the ship. The reverse of this letter has a two page Christian prayer written in Raine's hand which includes an aspect of the "Lord's Prayer" and briefly mentions the military and civilian conditions of the war. Other items include a note from druggists Bullock and Crenshaw of Philadelphia, Pa., to Raine in prison that accompanied Raine's request for $20.00 in 1865. He used the reverse to draft a letter to Henry C. Cromwell, the fellow prisoner who had given him the diary. Also included in this folder is a letter from J. Eliza Reston of Baltimore, two letters from Tillie Russell of Winchester, Va., and a letter from Coupland R. Page, a Cumberland County, Va. soldier who served in both the Liberty Hall Volunteers of the 4th Virginia Infantry and Virginia artillery units.
This folder includes Charles A. Raine's Fort Delaware parole dated Jun 16, 1865, a hanwritten poems titled, "The Confederate Dollar" and "Fort Delaware Ballad."
This folder includes an 1865 tax receipt for Charles A. Raine from Halifax County, Va.and purchase receipts for "crowns for the News Ferry Tournament from Mrs. M. R. Fox, "Milliner and Dealer in Bonnets, Hats, Ribbons, Flowers, Feathers, etc." This was likely a medieval jousting re-enactment known as a "ring tournament"and popular during the immediate post-war years. Also included is an invitation to a celebration of the "Calliopean Literary Society" of the Cluster Springs School Halifax County, Va. dated 1866. The last items in the folder, are an 1873 accounting document pertaining to corn sales and an 1880 postal card invitation to Charles A. Raine from his brother inviting him to go fishing for pike in Wentworth, North Carolina.