Diary and Photo of William Henry Harrison Gaines (1836-1910), East Tennessee Union Sympathizer & Refugee. Gaines, of Sullivan County, Tennessee, fled East Tennessee in 1862 to avoid conscription into the Confederate army due to his Union and Abolitionist sympathies. Additional item - Cabinet card pictures Gaines and his second wife Amanda Maria (Seneker), likely on the occasion of their marriage in April of 1887.
Gaines was born in Sullivan County in 1836 to James Strother, a farmer, and Letitia Dalton (Moore) Gaines, making him about 26 years old when he began this diary. The diary, purchased at Werden & Co. Booksellers & Stationers in Indianapolis, IN, contains Gaines's entries starting March 17th, 1862, and continues through November 27th, 1865, with additional entries from 1867-79 pertaining to children (Walter J. Gaines, Isaac Allison Gaines, and Willie G. P. Gaines).
The diary begins with an account of W. H. H. Gaines’ flight north from Tennessee as he “was called upon by force of circumstances…to expatriate myself from my native state - to become an exile from my home, and all the associations I so much cherish.” The diary records his treacherous passage over rivers and mountains and past Confederate troops and highwaymen until “our minds were relieved of a heavy weight when we found ourselves out of ‘Dixie’ and on ‘old Kentucky’s shore.’” Gaines records many details of the trip, including the reactions of Kentuckians who wanted news from Tennessee. On one occasion a woman asks, “are they calling out the ‘litia’ [militia] in ‘Tenn’?” On another, Gaines notes that “[a]ll along through the camps we excited the curiosity of the soldiers for wherever we halted they gathered around us to hear from E. Tenn.” Gaines and his party were issued a military pass by General (later President) James A. Garfield and he records the text of the pass in full in his diary. It reads in part: “They are good union men from East Tennessee and the soldiers and officers under my command will show them any favors they can. / J.A. Garfield / Brg. Gen. Command’g.”
Gaines then describes his conversation with Garfield: “The Genl. gave us a hearty welcome. Said that E. Tennesseans were different from the people of Big Sandy [Kentucky] - that he could tell from our manners and conversation that there was refinement and intelligence. Says that not one in fifty can write their names here. Did us the kindness to give us ‘green-backs,’ which is as good as gold, in exchange for Tenn. currency.” Gaines records many details as he crosses Pikes Peak; hears news of Parson Brownlow; and arrives in Cincinnati where he celebrates the Fourth of July (“sending up balloons, sky rockets, roman candles, bonfires, blue and red lights, and something like a magic lantern on a large skale [sic]”) and visits a museum and an “ice cream saloon.”
In August of 1862 he hears a speech by a “Senitor Dunn” (possibly U.S. Representative William McKee Dunn, mistakenly referred to as Senator) and a Judge Hughes. Dunn “voted for the abolition of slavery in the D.C. and for the confiscation Bill and for subsisting our armies on the Southern Country without discrimination and for recognizing Hati [sic]” and who “expressed a sympathy for the poor slaves who would be beaten with many stripes by their cruel masters.” Judge Hughes “said that we must exterminate every negro and white man in the south and desolate the country - make it a wilderness or waste but what we put down this rebellion.”
Gaines learns that he was enrolled in the draft but learns that “Judge Hughes says that it is very clear in his mind that I am not subject to draft. He thinks also that refugees have suffered enough without being drafted. Allows me to use his name in a dispatch to Indianapolis to see if I am not exempt.” Gaines then records the dispatch in full. Reflecting on the war, Gaines notes on September 1, 1862 that “such a summer of war and bloodshed had never before marked the annals of American history.” Gaines was then exempted from Indiana's Union draft, after a ruling from the local draft board and Indianapolis.
Gaines writes of acquiring copies of the Chattanooga Daily Rebel and the Rebel Banner - “the first rebel-related papers I had seen since we left Dixie.” he also receives news from home, including reports of the death of individuals in battle. He attended a meeting at a schoolhouse in Stinesville, Indiana and was coldly received, remarking that “the people there are all democrats - hate abolitionists” even though he himself disagreed with slavery.
On January 13th, 1863 he began work as a schoolteacher, having been elected to a professorship at the Stinesville Classical Seminary. He then records activities and observances from his teaching, noting on his first day that "it boared [sic] me pretty smartly." The next day he notes: "Had five grown men & three grown ladies at school today. Pretty good order mantained. Boared again!"
On March 26th he notes that a Mr. Peirce, “a Yankie” living in Bloomington “has negross [sic] living on his place. They came in the house and set till bed time as free and as much at home as if they were white folk.”
The journal contains many more entries through 1867, though increasingly intermittent. The last dated entry is Feb. 22nd, 1879, recording the height and weight of his son Willie G.P. Gaines.
Condition
Photo with foxing and toning, modern sticker to reverse. Journal with loose pages, some separated; writing varies from pen to pencil, with pencil entries somewhat faded. Child-like drawings in rear of journal, presumably later.
