Transcribed diary and letters, ca. 1861-1886, re Civil War military service of Sgt. Alexander Casner Shaffer (1838-1910), a native of Sussex County, N.J., with narrative description and introductions to each chapter written by Shaffer's son, Edward Terry Hendrie Shaffer, who edited and transcribed this volume. Topics discussed include: early life farming in rural Sussex County, New Jersey; Civil War service in Harris Light Cavalry, 2nd New York Regiment; troop movements chiefly in Virginia; life as a soldier and camp life; confinement as a prisoner of war in Richmond at Libby Prison; relocation as captive to Macon, Georgia, and Charleston and Columbia, S.C.; escape from prison while in Columbia in 1864; his journey through Georgia to Atlanta along Sherman's path, along with descriptions of subsequent travel through Tennessee, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C. Scattered letters transcribed from Reconstruction and post-war years note Shaffer's work with the Freedmen's Bureau at Walterboro, S.C., where he settled during 1860s and remained for the rest of his life, operating the mercantile firm of Terry and Shaffer, a general store that remained in operation until 1911. E.T.H. Shaffer discusses his father's resettlement in Colleton County, S.C., with observation that slavery had continued to exist in New Jersey until 1846 when his A.C. Shaffer was 8 yrs old and his family farm in Sussex Co. had used slave labor.
