A Young Soldier
in the Army of the Potomac
Diary of Howard Helman, 1862
Page 2
patriotic challenge, he added the further inducement of a fifty dollar bounty per recruit, set by the county commissioners.(5)
Young Howard Helman, a seventeen-year-old printer, responded to the call and joined Waream's group on August 2 (6) Four days after enlistment, he entrained for Harrisburg, where, during the following two weeks, the recruits were given medical examinations and were outfitted. On August 19, the newly formed companies left Harrisburg for Washington, and the front.(7)
The diary of Private Helman, who served nine months in Company K, I3ISt Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, begins on August 6, the day he left Lewistown, and concludes on November 30, except for a final account, dated December 15, of his participation in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Whether he continued his diary through the Battle of Chancellorsville, in which his company fought, is not known. The value of Helman's diary lies in its simple description of camp life and daily experiences, including the long march to Fredericksburg, and its revelations of the feelings of a very young and raw recruit. Like so many youthful enterprises, the diary begins in high spirits and ends in a muted recitation of facts.(8)
On that morning [August 6, 1862] there was an unusual stir in the borough of Lewistown; women hurrying to and fro, and men with their bundles, telling that there was something rare in the wind. True there was. On that eventful morning Capt. Waream (9) was to leave for Harrisburg with a company of men to do battle for their country. The hour came for starting and a long line wended their
5 Ibid., Aug. 13, 1862.
6 Howard Helman was born in Hanover, York County, Pa., on Nov. 16, 1844. His enlistment papers are in the Pension Records, National Archives, Washington, D. C.
7 Lewistown Gazette, Aug. :7, 186~.
8 The editor wishes to thank Dr. Margaret Rickert, through whose family the original diary of her uncle, Howard Helman, has been preserved, for making the diary available to him. He also gratefully acknowledges the advice and assistance of Dr. Carrol H. Quenzel, librarian and professor of history at Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia at Fredericksburg, Mr. J. Martin Stroup, former editor of The Sentinel, Lewistown, Pa., and Messrs. Ralph Happel and Albert Dillahunty, historians at the Administrative Headquarters, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Fredericksburg, Va.
9 Capt. Joseph S. Waream commanded Company K, 1315t Pennsylvania Volunteers. Lewistown Gazette, July 30, 1862. He was wounded at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1863, and was mustered out with the company, May A, 1863. Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5 (Harrisburg, 1869), IV, 225.