Bill, I have portions of the diary in my personal records. The original is still in the possession of the Fry Family, but I am presently trying to relocate them to get permission to post it in its entirety. This is more a series of recollections written after the war than an actual diary. I simply labeled it the “Fry Diary” for my own reference.

I copied the portions I have in 1968 (pre-computer days) on index cards. Unfortunately, over the years I have misplaced the cards that held his identity. He was a Missourian in either the 8th or 9th MO Infantry. I will be able to identify the soldier and his unit when I contact the family again.

I have always enjoyed researching from the rank and file upward, and this record certainly gives a vivid picture of what the foot soldier experienced. For example, on the march to Little Rock after the fall of Van Buren, he wrote, “The Army now resumed the march down the Arkansas and when within seven miles of Little Rock, the last camp on that memorable march was struck up. It had been raining nearly all day and the roads were desperate. After night awhile the rain ceased, the wind shifted to the north, turned cold, and it began to snow. The snow continued to fall throughout the night and when morning came was some 15 inches deep with the thermometer somewhere below zero. The conditions of the teams, being mostly mules, after the previous days march along the muddy roads of the Arkansas River bottoms, was such as to render them incapable. Jaded and exhausted as they were from harsh pulling through the mud of successfully combating the rough weather, so sudden and severe in its transition from hot to extreme cold that many of them died rendering the further progress of the troops by land impracticable. Consequently we marched down to the river some half mile or ¾ distant and went on board a boat making the rest of the trip to Little Rock by water.”

He labeled this entry “Camp Freeze Out.”

There will be more in subsequent postings.