Company C in 1863 and Diary Entries of David Gibbs
- Oliver Groom
- Aug 24
- 5 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
Abstract: History of Company C in 1863 with a focus on the diary entries of David Gibbs.
Original written by siblings George & Deb McGraw, December 2023. Revised and edited by Erika Newcombe, Deb Hall, and Oliver Groom, August 2026.
The wooden trestle bridge over Accotink Creek in Fairfax County, Virginia, was a vital crossing on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. So, in early June 1863, Companies B and C of the 111th were detached there under the command of Capt. Robert C. Perry of Co. B. The two companies would stay in Virginia on detached duty until they rejoined the regiment in April 1864, missing the Battle of Gettysburg and the subsequent Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns.
On June 5, 1863, Pvt. David Gibbs wrote: “We moved from camp seventeen miles toward Washington lay on the ground at night walked six miles of it very tired.”
The men went about setting up camp, guarding the bridge and fending off raids by Confederate cavalry. In entries over the next several days, Pvt. Gibbs wrote: “Took a walk out of the lines and then went on guard at night … in camp all day cleaned my gun and slept the rest of the day we had drill and went in a swim … shaved three men and bought a lot of pies and sold them to make some money and then covered my tent with bark … did nothing all day on guard at knight … I went out with Captain Perry on a scout and got one man and four guns and one overcoat belonging to the government then went on guard at night 3 hours.”
On July 4, as the men continued guard duty, he wrote: “Selick Chase and Jerome Parker [both privates in Co. C who would later be wounded in May 1864 at the Wilderness] made a bet on getting horses to ride [there were several nearby calvary units] one bet that Selick would and others believed he wouldn’t. Although Pvt. Gibbs held the money, he didn’t record who won the bet.”
On the 6th, he wrote, “… rained all night and continued all day captured one reb on Sunday.”
On the 11th: “… went to Washington on the street car saw arsenal and the treasury and the capital.”
On the 24th: “… took a walk I saw five hundred dead horses in a mile then went in swimming and had some pie and a fine apple cider.”
Pvt. Gibbs was sick for the remainder of July and first few days of August. On August 5, he wrote, “Fun guard today the farmer had some whisky so the boys some of them got very tipsy …”
On the 15th: “Thomas Gibney went to hospital I got a horse and went to the farm.”
On the 16th: “I am for guard today as usual every other day last night Captain went on a scout with some of the boys.”
The 25th was a long day as he wrote, “Mrs. Thomas Gibney came here to see her husband and found him dead I wrote a letter for her to her children.”
The next day, Pvt. Gibbs wrote, “Edwin Spurr went to the hospital for her things and I walked around to content myself from being lonesome for home.” Gibbs got Mrs. Gibney a pass home, and she left camp on August 29.
October found the men of Co. C at Camp Beckwith near Lewinsville, VA, warding off raids by Confederate cavalry.
Throughout Gibbs’s entire diary, he recorded the constant letters him and his wife transpired, the other usually receiving a letter every couple days from the other. There are many entries where writing or reading Sarah's letters is the highlight of David's day. On October 30 it is recorded that David even sent Sarah a package.
Pvt. Gibbs wrote on Oct 2: “had the ague all day and it rained very hard and blew hard I heard that some of our boys were taken.”
That evening, members of the 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion, a.k.a. “the Comanches,” dressed in Union uniforms and staged a diversion while others snuck into Camp Beckwith and stole sixty horses and took twenty Union prisoners, eleven of whom were from Company C.
Sgt. George Wishart was able to escape from the Rebels and return to camp; the other ten were not so fortunate. Only Pvt. William H. Bennett and Cpl. William Desmond would survive their time in captivity; they were exchanged in late 1864 and returned home after the war in 1865. The other eight taken captive died at Andersonville in Georgia, Libby Prison, or one of the other Richmond, VA, area camps: Pvts. James H. Fisher, Nicholas Fitzgerald, Edwin Hall, Horace McConnell, Ezra Sherman, Clayton Bodley, Americus Butts, and James C. Corwin.
For the remainder of October into November, the men of Company C continued their duty guarding the bridge. In mid-November, David Gibbs was promoted to corporal. Later in November, one of the men stole $27 from Capt. Perry who called up all the men and searched their pocket books, but the diary does not say if they caught the thief. To put the amount in perspective, a Union private’s monthly pay was $13. Gibbs also wrote about the men playing ball, likely baseball.
Ending the diary on December 18, Cpl. Gibbs directly addressed his wife: “Sarah as you read this of my hand writing then think of me far below in the seat of war friend and husband.”
The men of Companies B and C returned to the 111th in April 1864. Their return brought the size of the regiment to 439 men, almost double what it had been at the end of Gettysburg, its costliest battle of the war, but still a far cry from the approximately 1,000 who left Auburn for Harper’s Ferry in August 1862. In May 1864, Companies B and C took part in the Overland Campaign, their first major action with the 111th since the regiment surrendered at Harper’s Ferry in September 1862. From May 5-6, 1864, they fought in the Battle of the Wilderness, where the regiment lost 42 killed, 119 wounded, and 17 missing or captured, reducing the regiment to less than 200 men present for duty. Cpl. Gibbs was one of the wounded. His wife, Sarah Jane “Drew” Gibbs, traveled to Virginia to aid in his recovery from a head wound and helped tend to others in the regiment.
Cpl. Gibbs recovered and was discharged for disability in October 1864. He and his wife moved to Bronson, MI, where they grew potatoes and raised five children. In 1910, Sarah passed away at the age of 71.
David Gibbs died in 1918 at age 81 and is buried with Sarah in Bronson Cemetery in Branch County, MI, where the two have their names listed on the same headstone.
The Wayne County Historical Society encourages anyone with family members who served and lived in Wayne or Cayuga Counties during the 1860s to contact the Wayne County Historical Society at info@waynehistory.org or (315) 946-4943. If you are not sure about your Civil War ancestry, you can follow up with the link below:
Photos:
Photographer Andrew Joseph Russell (Photo taken between 1861 and 1865)
1861 “Interior of Lower Battery at Chain Bridge”
David and Sarah Gibbs
David and Sarah's Headstone
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