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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [folder], David Dobie Diary, 1863, Ms2023-021, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The David Dobie Diary was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in April 2017.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the David Dobie Diary was completed in May 2023.
David F. Dobie was born to David and Eliza Dobie on January 12, 1840, in Huntington, Quebec, in Canada. In 1844, the Dobie family immigrated to the United States, and they settled in Plattsburgh, New York, by 1850. According to the 1860 census, he was studying law.
During the American Civil War, Dobie mustered into the Union Army on August 21, 1862, as a First Lieutenant, and was promoted to the rank of Captain on May 18, 1864. Dobie served with Company H of the 118th New York Infantry. During the war, Dobie served primarily as a court martial judge advocate. Dobie's pension application also notes that he was wounded on September 28, 1864, at Fort Harrison, Virginia.
In 1866, Dobie married Harriet J. "Hattie", and he was working as a lawyer by the 1870 census. He served as Clinton County Treasurer from 1869 to 1881 and Surrogate from 1881 to 1893. He also served as president of the Vilas National Bank of Plattsburg, president of the Clinton County Agricultural Society, and as an alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from New York in 1896. He served as warden of Clinton Prison in Clinton, New York, at the time of his death on October 24, 1900.
Sources:
U.S. Federal Census, 1850-1900
David Fowler Dobie in the New York, U.S., Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900
"Judge David F. Dobie", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147471733/david-f.-dobie
"David F. Dobie Dead. Warden of Clinton Prison Succumbs Suddenly to Heart Disease."
Lawrence Kestenbaum, "Dobie, David F.", The Political Graveyard, https://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/dixson-doctrine.html#126.87.09
This collection contains a diary written by Captain David Dobie, an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Dobie's diary primarily discusses life in camp, marches, skirmishes with the Confederate Army, and other aspects of military life during the war. He also discusses his involvement with court-martials, plays that he had seen in the theater, and one instance of an effigy being burned for a Lieutenant who had sold his presentation sword. The end of the diary was also used to track transactions that Dobie had made.
See also the Letters of Captain David F. Dobie, Accession #989, at Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
The guide to the David Dobie Diary by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).