| Scope and content |
Collection consists of correspondence between Driver and his family and friends during the Civil War. From Annapolis, Driver describes battle drills, seeing General Burnside, his tent mates, and the ships at Annapolis. Aboard the Highlander, he discusses his duties as commissary sergeant, rescuing a shipwrecked crew Hatteras Inlet, episodes of measles and seasickness, sandbars in Hatteras Inlet, and the importance of cutting railroads supplying the Confederate army. In February 1862, he describes the attack on Roanoke Island and notes that General Henry A. Wise left before the battle, retiring to the Dismal Swamp. Driver also describes a battle along the Neuse River near New Bern and mentions the burning of the City Hotel. In his letters, Stephen Driver, George's brother, comments on a rebel guerilla raid at Washington, N.C, and sniper attacks at New Bern. John P. Tilton of the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment writes of engagements in Kingston (Kinston), Whitehall (Seven Springs), and Everettsville (South Goldsboro), N.C. He notes the number killed and wounded, and lists the men in his tent at Camp Pendleton, New Bern. Tilton also writes of soldier morale, details regimental promotions, and discusses further the sniper attack Stephen Driver described. |
| Biographical note | George H. S. Driver was a Union soldier from Danvers, Mass., serving as a commissary sergeant aboard the schooner Highlander from December 1861 to March 1862. His Civil War naval activities began in Annapolis, Md., at Camp J. A. Andrew, and continued aboard the schooner Highlander the Pamlico Sound. After March 1862, Driver was on detached duty in Massachusetts due to illness. |
