August Scherneckau's diary is the most important firsthand
account of the Civil War by a Nebraska soldier that has yet come to
light. A German immigrant, Scherneckau served with the First
Nebraska Volunteers from 1862 through 1865. Depicting the unit's
service in Missouri, Arkansas, and Nebraska Territory, he offers
detail, insight, and literary quality matched by few other accounts
of the Civil War in the West. His observations provide new
perspective on campaigns, military strategy, leadership, politics,
ethnicity, emancipation, and a host of other topics.
Scherneckau takes readers on the march as he and his comrades
plod through mud and snow during a grueling winter campaign in the
Missouri Ozarks. He served as a provost guard in St. Louis, where
he helped save a former slave from kidnappers and observed the
construction of Union gunboats. He describes the process of
transforming a regiment from infantry to cavalry, and his account
of the First Nebraska's pursuit of Freeman's Partisans in Arkansas
is an exciting portrayal of mountain fighting.
An annotated edition that brings to bear the editors' and
translator's respective expertise in both the Civil War and the
German language, Scherneckau's account is an important addition to
primary material on the war's forgotten theater. It will be a
valued resource for historian and Civil War enthusiast alike.
General
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