The war time diary of Harvey Reid possesses elements of permanent
interest and value. Aside from this, however, it should have a special
interest now, when we are still passing through the initial stage of
another great war in behalf of human liberty and human rights. With
the events and emotions of the past few months still fresh in mind, it
is well to relive with our eager diarist the opening scenes of the
Civil War at the capital of Wisconsin. Madison is an interesting city,
with a rich and interesting history; yet it would be impossible to
select, from all its eighty years of life, a period more crowded with
exciting events than were the three months of April, May, and June,
1861. Fortunately a bright and eager observer was at hand making his
daily record of the thrilling life of this exciting time.
Harvey Reid, the diarist, typifies the choicest product of our
American civilization. It was not given to him to play a prominent
rôle in the drama of his time. Instead, he belonged to the great mass
of Americans, of whom, as individuals, posterity will retain no
memory. But he was honest, industrious, and loyal, faithful to his
country alike in military and in civil life. Although his education
was limited to the district school, and to the ten-weeks’ preparatory
course at the University of Wisconsin covered by the diary, he
retained a lifelong interest in educational affairs, laboring
effectively for many years as school director and library trustee. His
intellectual vigor is attested by the fact that after reaching his
sixtieth year he began and diligently pursued the study of geology. In
the historical field two substantial volumes stand to his credit--a
biography of Enoch Long, published by the Chicago Historical Society,
and one of Thomas Cox, published by the State Historical Society of
Iowa.
Reid was born in Washington County, New York, March 30, 1842, of
Scotch-Irish ancestry. When two years of age he was taken by his
parents to Wisconsin, the journey being made by way of the Erie Canal
and then around the Lakes to Racine, which was reached in June, 1844.
The elder Reid shortly removed to Yorkville, and several years later
to Union Corners (now Union Grove) in Racine County. Thus Reid grew to
manhood in pioneer Wisconsin, and became in the fullest sense a
product of the Badger State. In 1859, at the age of seventeen, he
began teaching school in an adjoining district at a salary of twenty
dollars a month. A second winter was passed in the same way (the
summers being devoted to helping his father), and then, in the spring
of 1861, came the prized opportunity of ten weeks’ schooling at the
state university. How fully the young man improved it the pages of the
diary reveal.
Of the three room-mates in old North Hall from Union Grove, in the
spring of 1861, Goldsworthy, Fuller, and Reid, only the first-named
resumed his studies in the autumn. Reid again taught a winter term of
district school in Racine County, and then followed his parents, who
had removed to the new town of Shannon, Illinois. But in the summer of
1862, in response to Lincoln’s call for “six hundred thousand more,”
he returned to Union Grove to enlist with a squad of boys from the old
home neighborhood. Characteristic of the conduct of the Civil War is
the fact that of the twenty-four boys of the “Union Grove Squad,” four
died of disease, while but one was killed in battle. Reid enlisted at
Racine, August 7, 1862, in the Twenty-second Wisconsin Infantry. The
close of the war terminated his service in June, 1865. During the war
his father had removed to Sabula, Iowa. Following him thither, on
being released from the army, Reid made his home in Jackson County,
Iowa, until his death in 1910. He played a worthy, albeit quiet, rôle
in life, and died sincerely mourned by the circle of his
acquaintances.
The Civil War papers of Mr. Reid were presented to the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin a year ago by his daughter, Mary A.
Reid of Des Moines. They comprise, in addition to the diary here
printed, a voluminous correspondence during the term of military
service, with parents and sisters at home. At the beginning of his
service Mr. Reid formed the design of writing his home letters in the
form of a journal, instead of keeping, as so many Civil War soldiers
did, a formal diary. Because of this fact, and of the high order of
intelligence and ability possessed by the writer, the letters
constitute a valuable record, well worthy of publication when the
occasion shall offer.