Collection is open for research.
Permission to publish material from William J. Lacey Diary must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information:William J. Lacey Diary, Ms2011-115, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
Special Collections purchased the William J. Lacey Diary in November 2011.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the William J. Lacey Diary was completed in December 2011.
William J. Lacey was born about 1833 in Pennsylvania. According to 1860 census records, he was living with his family in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Lacey served with Company C of the 11th Mississippi Infantry during the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in March 1861 and served with the CSA until April 1865.
The collection consists of the diary of William J. Lacey, private with Co. C, 11th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry. Although the diary is for 1860, Lacey appears not to have acquired the volume until 1861. As a result, he has hand corrected the date and year throughout the volume. The front of the diary includes scattered notes, while the majority of the entries were written between July 1861 and February 1862, at which point Lacey appears to have gone on furlough.
The diary recounts Lacey's on-going struggles with illness. His first significant entry begins at Winchester, Virginia, July 17, 1861. He remarks that the "south will owe a debt of deep gratitude to her sons who are perilling health + life for her. A battle is nothing. It is the suffering otherwise that we have to undergo. may god smile upon our effort." Lacey's ill health continues to plague him. Lacey's early entries detail his experiences at First Manassas/Battle of Bull Run and at other sites near Charlottesville and Gordonsville, Virginia. In addition, like many soldiers, Lacey frequent records the weather, letters written and received, and the latest movements of his regiment. Aside from cash accounts at the end of the diary, Lacey's final note, written into the memoranda pages and providing contact information should anything happen to him, was dated February 1863 at Richmond.