Rifle Purchase

Farnham's diary notes his purchase of his rifle. He describes his testing of it, a problem he found, and the type of sight mechanism it has. He notes what appears to be its serial number.

I just read recently that civil war sharpshooters often purchased their own rifles with the expectation that they would be reimbursed by the Union government.

As printed covering some 73 pages, Farnham's diary contains much detail.

Goldberg Location

For those of you who have downloaded the electronic version of the book (and those who have ordered a hard copy), one of the issues arising from the soldier's diaries is the location of a place called "Goldberg" in the Virginia wilderness area. There were two candidates: one a gold mining operation north of the Wilderness Tavern, and the other a settlement called Gold Dale about two miles east of Mine Run.

I have created a FREE download of a map showing the location of Gold Dale and its proximity to Mine Run. The link is at the left and should download a jpg image with the area in question highlighted in light yellow.