23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Association Records

23rd REGIMENT MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY ASSOCIATION RECORDS, 1861-1917

Sponsor:

Processing of this collection was funded by a grant from the NHPRC (National Historical Publications and Records Commission).

Series List

Scope and Content Note

The 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Association records include meeting minutes, correspondence, reunion programs and invitations, scrapbooks, photographs, and newspaper clippings created and collected by elected officers and members of the 23rd Regiment Association. The collection has been arranged into three series.

Series I. Association Records includes record books, correspondence, maps, reunion programs and invitations, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and photographs created by officers and members of the 23rd Regiment Association.

Series II. Company F Records includes record books, correspondence, journals, and photographs created by members of Company F of the 23rd Regiment Association. The record books and correspondence detail member reunions that were specific to Company F and document a history of the regiment from the Company F point of view. Herbert E. Valentine and Luis F. Emilio were members of Company F and have correspondence, journals, and photographs included in this series.

Series III. Roanoke Association Records includes correspondence, programs and invitations, scrapbooks, maps, and newspaper clippings. Luis F. Emilio, a member of Company F and the 23rd Regiment Association, created or collected the majority of the material within this series.

Historical Sketch

The 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Association was established at a regimental reunion in 1871. The association had an elected president, vice president, adjutant, treasurer, chaplain, and secretary. The association's History Committee maintained the regimental history and appointed members of each company to collect information related to specific company histories. The association continued to arrange annual regimental reunions and published a regiment history in 1886. Company F of the 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was especially proactive in collecting and maintaining records of their company's service during the Civil War and afterwards. Company F held their own reunions, meetings, and published a history of the company in 1896.

The Roanoke Association was an organization that celebrated the capture of Roanoke Island under General Ambrose E. Burnside as a part of the Burnside Expedition in 1862. The 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry participated in this expedition along with twenty other Union regiments. Every individual who took part in the Burnside expedition was eligible for membership in the Roanoke Association. Many members of the 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Association were also actively involved in the Roanoke Association.

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Copyright

Request for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Preferred Citation

23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Association Records, MM39 , Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

Provenance

This material was donated by multiple sources. Arthur L. Swasey donated a record book and scrapbook of letters on August 27, 1925. The 23rd Regiment Association donated a record book on October 30, 1909. And Herbert E. Valentine donated scrapbooks on September 19, 1911, February 17, 1912, and June 2, 1913.

Processing Information

Collection processed and cataloged by Halley Grogan, March 2012.

Related Material

Emmerton, James A. A Record of the 23rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. Boston, MA: William Ware & Co. 1886.

Valentine, Herbert E. Story of Co. F, 23d Massachusetts Volunteers in the War for the Union, 1861-1865. Boston: W. B. Clarke & Co., 1896.

Massachusetts Volunteer Militia Records, 1775-1908, MM 6

Union Drill Club of Salem Records, 1861, MM 37

Herbert E. Valentine Papers, 1861-1915, MM 7