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UNPUBLISHED DIARY BY SIMEON WALKER. Walker, Simeon. Journal and autobiography, 1853-1878. Bound vol., 281p. A Methodist itinerant minister and early settler in Richmond, Illinois, Simeon Walker (b.1802) spent a rambling life. The first half of his extraordinary diary/memoir includes a detailed account of two of the most memorable episodes of his life, a lengthy trip to Arkansas and Texas in 1853-1854 and his tour of duty as a Civil War chaplain, with the latter half of the journal being a remarkable memoir describing not only Walker's own life, but the development of the American frontier. His faulty spelling and creative grammar do little to dim a powerful narrative. The volume begins with a diary describing Walker's tour through Missouri, northern Arkansas, and East Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee, reporting on the mixed religious affinities of dozens of small communities as he went and the landscape and people encountered. He was favorably impressed with the Choctaw nation, in which he wrote "there is a vast Territory of good Country in this Nation and Some Splendid Farms And Large Stock holders among the Indians an Especially among the mixed and Half Bloods there all the Puslies, Robinson, Kames, and among them, allso there is to be found the smartest of Men, they take now their Missonaries, Schools, Sabath Schools And Churches, and now they of Late have adopted the plan of Legislating, and Makeing Laws, and to aid them in this Wise arrangement they have called in the Arkansas Statute..." Texas was similarly agreeable, though he disapproved of the lack of navigation in many places. Along the Trinity River, however, he found a sobering sight: "perhaps four fifths of the Houses left Without inhabitant and as you pass through its Vacated and Silent Streets and behold the Houses filled with Furniture But, all Still as the a bode of Death. And as if Clad with mourning for their former inhabitants you are made to fell as Though you were in the territories of Death and the Dead... this Awfull Distruction was caused by a Visitation of yellow fever and left only Some three or four Families in the place." Upon his return to Illinois, Walker laid his book down until he packed off for several months' duty in the Civil War as chaplain of the 15th Illinois Cavalry. The "diary" portion, which may have been written in part after the war, includes a fine description of the deployment of his regiment in the late summer, 1863, to Corinth, Miss., where they regularly engaged with Confederate cavalry and guerrillas. After a scout brought in about 500 former slaves and an equal number of white men, some prisoners, some refugees, and some claiming a desire to join the federal army, "it is said I believe by pretty mutch all hands that there never was Such a perfect Reign of Curse in all our land as there is at this time. All our Rebelldom men lying in the woods and being hunted after like the Sportsman hunts the Deer or the fox and it is confidently said that in Some instances men and women too have been torn in pieces by Blood hounds while carrieng victuals to their friends in those places of consealment, they say, all they want is some guarentee for their life while they are volunteering and preparing to volunteer..." His detailed description of the painful death of a soldier from flux is memorable. The devastation of war profoundly affected Walker, who recognized the social impact of the war beyond anything military: "Southern conscription, the force used to compel able bodied blacks to do the drudgery of the rebel army, together with the advance of our army and the flight of guilty rebels depopulated the country as though it had been visited with a deadly plague. Never the less, thousands of helpless women dependant children and the aged and infirm of both Sexes are to be found at the diferent towns farms and Landings. This class are to be supported and if unable, as they are to make a lively hood must be the recipients of government charity. To day there are not less than seven tenths of the citizens of Tennisee and Mississippi lieing on the borders of the river who are the receivers of alms from the government commissary. Was is a certain teacher of all classes of one or the other of the contending parties. This is true in a social sense as well as in pecuniary mattes. Men and women who before the war reveled in all the luxuries of wealth not deigning to notice the poor trash i.e. white trash among them, are to day the associates of and in the same condition of their once less fortunate but now nearly equal fellow beings..." In his section "unbleached Americans," Walker also described a typical "Negro Camp" at length: "I visited a camp of Negroes on Sabbath last and was surprised to find so mutch of neetness and order in all their arrangements. The Soldiers are scrupulously clean, well clad, regularly and rigidly dressed, compelled to keep within camp and above all anxious to learn and perform all the duties of good soldiers..." Walker's autobiography, written for his children in 1878, occupies approximately half of the volume, and provides a look back over his life and his family's arrival in Illinois territory in 1809. An anecdotal work, part reminiscence, part family lore, and part supplemented from other sources, Walker describes his life in early Illinois, from Indian fighting during the War of 1812 to the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1815. The most fascinating parts of the memoir, however, are those treating with his own experiences as a preacher during the Second Great Awakening, beginning with his first camp meeting in 1819: "I surrendered and Sabbath after noon a mighty work broke out. I was deeply convicted; my Horse however; got a way, and I had to go after him and was gon til after dark. When I returned the grounds were all lighted and Hundreds engaged in the Various exercises of the great Battle of the Lord Some Singing, Some Shouting, Some weeping, Some Exhorting, while the Slain of the Lord were to be found all over the ground and the nois was like that at the Laying the founation [sic] of the Second Temple; was heared afar off, all though I was Brought up a Methodist and had been used to Shouting all my Life yet I never before had Seen any thing to compare with that..." The moment of Walker's salvation, appropriately enough, came later when alone in a graveyard: "I cast my eyes toward Heaven as quick as a flash I thought I litterally Saw every Star within my vission leap with a britness and beauty that I never had seen before I leaped like Lambe, I shouted to the top of my vois, my words were glory, Honor, power, might, Mage[s]ty, and dominion be ascribed to God and the Lamb for Ever and Ever Alleluia." An exciting document describing life in antebellum Texas, the Civil War, and an exceptional, historically valuable autobiography. The volume needs rebinding, but complete, clean, and legible throughout. PLEASE NOTE: THIS LOT WILL BE SOLD ON EBAY LIVE AUCTIONS BETWEEN 5:00-6:00pm EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME ON MAY 10, 2002. REGISTER NOW TO BID LIVE ONLINE THE DAY OF THE SALE! (EST 3000-4000)
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