This episode covers Calvin's participation in the Union Army Grand Review in Washington, D.C., the Trial of Andersonville Commandant-Henry Wirz, the history of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his travels back home to Ohio where he musters out of service with the Union Army ..read more

Calvin was under the command of Major General John Pope and was one of the nearly 25,000 union soldiers comprising the Army of the Mississippi. Confederate forces had established encampments at a narrow section of the Mississippi River at New Madrid in order to destroy Union boats carrying troops and supplies as they attempted to gain access to the deep south.  River transportation was the most efficient and easily traveled access to the south as travel by road resulted in continuous engagements with confederate forces and southern sympathizers. It was impossible for the Union to protect ..read more

Calvin arrives at Camp Chase on Saturday, September 28, 1861 and gets ready to depart for Mt. Vernon on Tuesday, November 5, 1861 ..read more

Calvin enlisted in the 43rd O.V.I. on September 14, 1861. His regiment consisted of 2,904 soldiers under the command of Colonel Joseph L. Kirby Smith, a West Point Military Academy graduate. They called him "Our Kirby ..read more

The Confederate government began the construction of their Union prisoner of war camp in Andersonville, Georgia beginning November 1863 and started accepting prisoners in February 1864. The prison was designed to house 10,000 prisoners. During the operation of the prison 400 prisoners arrived daily resulting in nearly 45,000 Union soldiers being transported to Andersonville. Nearly 13,000 Union prisoners died at Andersonville from disease, exposure, and malnutrition. The dead were buried in mass graves dug by the prisoners outside the prison walls. There was an extreme lack of shelter, food, a ..read more

My name is Calvin Kirk French and I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I obtained my great grandfather’s diaries several years ago and just recently transcribed them into a Word document. Calvin Day French, the youngest of thirteen children, was born May 4th, 1842, at the small hamlet of Decatur, Otsego County, New York. His father, Samson French, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts January 7, 1796 and died April 11, 1861. His mother, Elizabeth Seaward, was born in Decatur, New York February 7, 1798 and died August 24, 1861, just 4 months after the death of her husband. We will begin with Calv ..read more

Calvin Day French continues marching north through North Carolina and Virginia nearly 600 miles under the command of General Sherman in April and May 1865. He marches in April through the North Carolina towns of Kinston, Goldsboro, Raleigh, Huntsville and Ridgeway. After the surrender of the Confederate armies by Generals Lee and Johnston in April 1865, Sherman continues marching his army in May through the Virginia towns of Petersburg, Manchester and Alexandria arriving in Washington, DC. On May 26, 1865, Calvin marched with Sherman’s Army in the West of 65,000 in the Grand Review totaling 16 ..read more

Calvin is marching about 300 miles from the Mississippi cities of Luka and Eastport to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to the Tennessee cities of Pulaski, Prospect and Bethel and then on to Mills Creek Alabama all the time skirting the Tennessee and Alabama border. Calvin crossed the Tennessee River several times by bridge on his travels ..read more

In January, February and March 1865 Calvin and the 17th Corp are marching north from Georgia into South and North Carolina in Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign of nearly 425 miles. Calvin marched and skirmished through the South Carolina towns of Beaufort, Humboldt, Pocotaligo, Robertsville, Lawtonville, Branchville, Midway, Orangeburg and Columbia. After reaching the outskirts of Columbia by February 16th, Sherman’s army then continued north from Cheraw, South Carolina to the North Carolina towns of Bennettsville, Johnsonville, Averasboro ending at Goldsboro ..read more

Saturday, August 1, 1863 through Saturday, October 31, 1863: Calvin is marching from Memphis, Tennessee to Luka, Mississippi to Eastport, Tennessee a distance of approximately 125 miles. He is travelling by foot and crossing swampy rivers on his way to meet up with the Union Army battle to take place in Alabama and the occupation of Nashville in February and March 1864 and then the march to Savannah, TN ..read more