Daily entries (with a small number of exceptions) of varying length from Foote's service in Sitka, Alaska and in the Department of the Platte. Foote records his military duties (officer of the day, court martials, mess duty), off-duty activities (social visits, reading, correspondence), financial transactions and health, the weather, and the arrival and departure of ships from Sitka. Includes accounts of a pair of conflicts with local indigenous groups (31 March 1868 and 1-3 January 1869), the death of Foote's friend Lt. Benjamin Wesley Livermore (20 June 1869), and the first Fourth of July celebration in Alaska (4 July 1868).