Cline's pocket diary consists of one leather-bound volume (12 cm.) of 122 leaves, with 213 hand-numbered pages of content in Cline's hand, almost all of it in ink. The inscription on the first page opposite the front pastedown indicates that he purchased the volume in 1863 (1r). Approximately 25 percent of the volume (roughly the first 53 pages) consists of a memoir recounting Cline's service to August 1863. On the first page of content (2r), beneath his name, birth date, and date and place of enlistment, Cline writes an abbreviated account of his movements from the regiment's departure from Chillicothe on 24 January 1862, to his capture on 30 August. This account, which functions almost as a preface to the subsequent memoir, continues onto the next page (2v), where Cline again inscribes his name and the details of his enlistment. The next 13 pages briefly chronicle Cline's capture and parole; his journeys home to Ohio and back to Virginia; and the Battle of Chancellorsville. The rest — almost three-quarters of the opening memoir — is devoted to the Battle of Gettysburg, where the 73rd Ohio suffered heavy casualties in the defense of Cemetery Hill. The remaining 138 pages of narrative content take the form of dated diary entries, some as brief 10 May 1864's "Rainde all nighte" (56v), but most ranging from 20 to 75 words. These entries cover the period from 20 August 1863 to 8 October 1864 and feature the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns, which combine to account for 110 pages. There are occasional gaps in the chronology, as well as stretches of continuous narrative accounting for days on which Cline presumably lacked time to write. The diary's final entry (8 October 1864) mentions a report from the east of heavy fighting outside Richmond (99r). The last few pages of the volume contain bills of clothing and other accounts, including two inventories of clothing and equipment lost at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (113r). There are also entries related to blacksmithing, including recipes for soldering brass and silver, and tempering steel (118v-119r). As a diarist, Cline is not introspective; most often he simply chronicles his day-to-day movements, taking care to mention events he feels to be of military importance. He records a great deal of second hand information or "noose" (97r), as he calls it, which usually comes in the form of vague reports of cavalry engagements (which he invariably describes as Union victories), inflated Confederate casualty figures, and sightings of general officers. Census records shed no light on the extent of his formal education, yet the volume does contain a few examples of what could be called self-consciously literary flourishes. In the entry for 9 September 1863, he writes that "the sun Rose this morninge in all Hur magestey and Brilincey" (37r). One of the most immediately striking features of the volume is Cline's idiosyncratic spelling, particularly his habit of adding a terminal "e" to words ending in consonants, even words like "and" ("ande") and "at" ("ate"). This feature differs significantly from the usual, phonetic spelling practice of semi-literate Civil War soldiers, and is consistent throughout the volume. It may indicate that Cline was not a native English speaker, though nothing in the census records confirms this. Dating the memoir portion of the volume (which begins on page 3r) proves something of a challenge. The date "Sepetember 9th 1863" heads the first page of content (2r), but the memoir appears to have been written earlier. It seems that Cline initially left the first leaf (comprising pages 2r-v) blank, returning to it on 9 September 1863 — well after he had completed the memoir — to provide a preface that would expand the narrative to encompass the whole of his military experience. It is most likely that he composed the memoir between 23 July and 18 August 1863, during a stretch of relative inactivity following the Gettysburg campaign. Military records indicate that from late July to 24 September, the regiment was mostly idle, having gone into camp along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in the vicinity of Bristoe Station. The regimental historian, Samuel H. Hurst, writes that "Our duty was light at all these places, and we were, indeed having a long and grateful rest after the severe campaign of Gettysburg" (Hurst, p. 80). On the march south from Pennsylvania, the 73rd Ohio crossed the Potomac on the morning of 19 July at Berlin, Maryland. Eighteen miles south of Berlin they crossed Goose Creek on the 20th. Cline heads the first page of the memoir (3r) with "Gainesvill va," a town approximately fifteen miles south of Goose Creek, and approximately five miles northeast of New Baltimore, Virginia, where the regiment encamped from 24-26 July. Cline probably began writing the memoir in Gainesville on the 22nd or 23rd. Five miles directly south of Gainesville is Greenwich, which the regiment passed through on 26 July and where they encamped from 17-22 August. Cline copied down an inscription from a tombstone in Greenwich's Baptist cemetery on 18 August. Beginning on 20 August (there is no entry for the 19th), Cline shifts from the continuous narrative characteristic of the memoir to segmented, dated entries. Here he also begins to use the present tense, as in the entry for 21-22 August: "the 21 ware verey warme But Juste in the eveninge there was a Shower of Rain whitch cooled the eare considerbel verey plesente to Day" (30r-v). The memoir contains enough information about Cline's day-to-day whereabouts to suggest that he may have copied details of chronology and geography from an earlier weather diary. Its prevailing tone of retrospection, along with its narrative coherence and structural continuity, distinguishes this section from the subsequent run of dated diary entries that comprises the bulk of the volume. Cline's account of the Gettysburg campaign is the focal point of the memoir. Situated between the memoir and the diary-proper is an epitaph that Cline copied from a tombstone in Greenwich, Virginia's Baptist churchyard on 18 August 1863. These "verses," as he calls them, which he copies in an uncharacteristically ornate and practiced hand, commemorate Mrs. Aminta S. Moseley, who "fore nearly half, a, century . . . was the stay and succor of The Presbyterian faith in This vicinity" (28v-29r). It is unclear why Cline was drawn to this particular inscription; nothing else in the volume indicates an abiding interest in religion, let alone Presbyterianism. Six pages later, Cline includes the chorus and verses of "The Rebels Excursion," a camp song that celebrates the Union victory at Gettysburg by ridiculing Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee (32r-33v). The transition into the diary portion of the volume coincides with the end of the Gettysburg campaign, just before the regiment was transferred to the Western theater. Entries from 20 to 30 August 1863 mention attempts by detachments of the 73rd Ohio to disrupt Confederate guerilla operations along Union supply routes in Virginia (30r-34v). On 24 September, the regiment was ordered to Manassas Junction where, on the 25th, they boarded the "cares ande Started fore washingeton citey" (40r). This was the first leg of a circuitous journey taking them as far north as Columbus, Ohio, as far south as Bridgeport, Alabama, and finally to the Army of the Cumberland in "chatanooghey" (44r). Cline writes of the successful Union assaults on Lookout Mountain (24 November 1863) and Missionary Ridge (25 November 1863), where "the olde 73de ware calde fore to charge a peace of woodes whitch the firste Bregade stalde on ware Deployed charged 1/2 a mile Repulste the Rebels withoute the loss of a man" (46r). The result of these actions, Cline writes, was "a purfick Route of the Hole Rebel armey" (47v). Following his transfer to the brigade wagon train, which put him some distance from the front lines, the content of the diary often turns to more commonplace topics. Cline frequently comments on the weather, the daily movements of the train, and the constant stream of men and materiel bound for "the fronte" (63r). On occasion he also gives insight into the nature of his duty and its particular hazards. He reports on the morning of 8 May 1864 that he has "sete 18 shoes" (56r), and on 5 August writes that he was "kicked on the nea Bey a mule the 3 verey painful" (88v). Mid-summer campaigning in Georgia brought its own discomforts: "the worste wea sufer with is flies they are tremendious Bade," he writes on 28 July 1864 (85r). Though his transfer took him out of the fighting, Cline continued to use his diary to record the progress of Union arms. Typical is his entry for 29 May 1864, detailing a failed Confederate attack on XV Corps near Pumpkin Vine Creek: May 29 1864 Sharpe Skermishing in fronte till 8 oclock, then all quiete again, coole and plesante weather lainge two miles from Dalace Barto .co. georgea the fighte of laste night ware the loss of 2 thousen Rebels By a charge on Hour lines Hancemly Repulste By general logan Division pulde oute train ande moovede 5 miles north easte ande parked. (62v) For the most part, the diary provides a rear-echelon perspective on the 73rd Ohio's engagements during the advance on Atlanta, including Rocky Face Ridge (8 May 1864), Resaca (14 May 1864), New Hope Church (25 May 1864), Dallas (26 May 1864), Kennesaw Mountain (27 June 1864), and Peach Tree Creek (19-20 July 1864). The entry for 2 September 1864 records the capture of Atlanta: 2/64 laste nighte Heavey firing war Hearde in the Direction of atlantey 8 Hundred of the 3 Bregade wente oute to see whate firinge ite ware ande wente on til they came in Site of atlantey ande now eneymey to Bea founde ande they charged in to the sitey tooke 3 Hundred prisoners ande Run out one Bregade of caverley ande the town ware Surendered to the 3 Division ande 20 corps on the 2 Day of Sepetember. (95v) These engagements can usually be tracked in the diary as periods marked by "Heavey canonadinge in fronte" (66r). When he can get them, Cline fills in the "particlers" in subsequent entries (73r), as on 21 July 1864, when he writes that "the Rebls made a charge on the 20 and 4 corps Bute war Repulste with Heavey loss the 73de o/v/i lost 68 men in kilde and wounded" (81r-v). On the following day, the wagon train passed by a portion of the Peach Tree Creek battlefield. Though a seasoned veteran, Cline is awestruck by the devastation wrought on the landscape by rifle and cannon fire. "The timber is literley moad off By grape and Shell," he writes on 22 July, "ande the timber is cute to peaces Buy Hour mineyes" (82r). Still reflecting on the carnage four days later, he writes that "the Batel of the 20 ware foughte on verey Broken grounde a greate meney of the Joneyes note Buried yete . . . i counted 114 shotes in one tree 3 feate over" (84r). Cline does not directly address politics or ideology in the volume. He says nothing about his reasons for enlisting, nor, for that matter, about his decision not to reenlist in December 1863. When "the veteren feaver gote into campe," he writes, "all Reinlisted fore 3 yeres longer all fore a thirtey Dayes furlow Bute I couldente see ite" (52v). He does mention the 1863 Ohio gubernatorial contest between John Brough and Clement Vallandigham, which gained national notoriety because of Vallandigham's vocal opposition to the war. Indicating no preference, Cline merely records the regiment's vote tally: "14th 1863 this is election times election is over Boragh majority maJorirty is 227 there ware 24 give fore valandenHam" (41r-v). Conditioned by nineteenth-century American culture's valorization of self-sufficiency and democracy, volunteer soldiers on both sides found it extremely difficult to adapt to the regimentation of military life. Cline is no exception. He complains very little about the hardships of campaigning, but he does express frustration with marching and countermarching to no apparent purpose. As he writes of the regiment's failed attempt to corner the Confederate cavalry raider John S. Mosby in late July 1863, "the 73de Regemente wente 8 miles Down goos crick to ketch olde mosby Bute the Birde hade fowen Before they Hade gote there this march of the 73de was like Honderdes of other wones to now efecte whteeve onley to Run Down the men" (22r).