SCOUT

This collection consists of two notebooks that Tilghman Blazer kept between 1864 and 1892. The first details his military experience as a member of Company K of the 8th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry (Union) in Georgia and Tennessee during 1864, and the second contains classroom rosters and business transactions written after his return to Cocke County, Tenn.

William A. Smith of the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry (also called the Irish Brigade) wrote this letter to his family in Chester County, Pennsylvania on August 30, 1863. In it, he reports that three men from the 2nd Division (one from the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry and another from the 20th Massachusetts Infantry) were executed for desertion and speculates that some from his own regiment might suffer the same fate.