Voices of Gettysburg

A soldier marching toward battle. A Gettysburg housewife. An eyewitness at the dedication. I’m presenting their first-hand accounts from 1863 in conjunction with my new story Abraham & Isaac: Sacrifice at Gettysburg. I begin with Private Isaac Taylor and President Lincoln. To hear more about how the paths of Isaac, Abraham Lincoln, and others intersected at Gettysburg, please visit sydlieberman.com.
—Syd Lieberman

Isaac Taylor

Isaac’s diary entries are from “Campaigning with the First Minnesota: A Civil War Diary,” edited by Hazel C. Wolf. Minnesota History 25 (1944), pp. 253-57 and 342-361

Tintype of Isaac Taylor by unknown photographer, c. 1861, courtesy of Gettysburg National Military Park

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About Isaac Taylor

Isaac and Henry Taylor, Illinois farm boys, taught school in the new state of Minnesota. The brothers joined the First Minnesota Volunteers shortly after the Civil War began in April 1861.

Isaac, 24, followed in the footsteps of 23-year-old Henry, who wrote after enlisting, “The spirit of patriotism prompted me to volunteer to go and fight for my beloved country.”

Isaac’s diary opened on New Year’s Day 1862 with this tongue-in-cheek note to the Confederate soldier who might find it:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.
MR. SECESH;
Please forward this diary to J.H. Taylor, Prairie City… Illinois. By doing so, you will exhibit your magnanimity, accommodativeness & divers other virtues, besides conferring no small favor on a defunct individual.
Yours truly,
I.L. TAYLOR

Eventually, six of the nine Taylor sons would defend the Union. By Spring 1863, Isaac and Henry were seasoned soldiers, eager to take part in a decisive battle. Stationed on the Rappahannock River in Virginia, the brothers would soon make their way to Gettysburg. You can follow them in these excerpts from Isaac’s diary.