Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Joseph Heft Diary #5106-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy (filmed 2007) available.

• Reel 1: Entire collection

Alternate Form of Material

A typed transcription of the volume and unbound pages is available.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum of Valley Stream, N.Y., in October 2002 (Acc. 99355).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Elizabeth Getz, November 2002

Encoded by: Elizabeth Getz, November 2002

Revisions: Nancy Kaiser, February 2005, December 2021

Funding from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., supported the microfilming of this collection.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Bentonville, Battle of, Bentonville, N.C., 1865.
• Diaries.
• Georgia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Heft, Joseph, fl. 1864-1870.
• North Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Orangeburg (S.C.)--History.
• Sherman's March through the Carolinas--Personal narratives.
• Sherman's March to the Sea--Personal narratives.
• Soldiers--United States--Diaries.
• Soldiers--United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• South Carolina--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives.
• United States. Army--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• United States. Army--Military life--History.
• United States. Army. Ohio Infantry Regiment, 78th (1861-1865).

Joseph Heft was from Coshocton County, Ohio. He was drafted for service in the Union Army on 21 September 1864. Heft joined the 78th Ohio Infantry Regiment in Atlanta, Ga., in early November and participated with the Army of the Tennessee in William T. Sherman's March to the Sea and March through the Carolinas during the fall of 1864 and the spring of 1865. He was mustered out of the Army in June 1865 and returned to Ohio. He was discharged from military service on 16 June 1865.

The collection contains the diary, 1864-1865, 1870, of Ohio Civil War soldier Joseph Heft, who served in the 78th Ohio Infantry Regiment in the Army of the Tennessee. The diary records the movements of the 78th Ohio on Sherman's March to the Sea and Sherman's March through the Carolinas. Heft detailed the miles marched, the conditions of the march, and the burning of railroad tracks along the way. He also mentioned fighting with Confederates contesting the Union advance at Savannah, Ga.; Pocotaligo Station, S.C.; and Orangeburg, S.C. In March 1865, Heft described the death of a Confederate soldier executed in retaliation for the death by beating of a Union soldier. He noted seeing Confederate dead on the field after the Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina. Heft also recorded his march through Virginia and into Washington, D.C., for the Grand Review of the Union Armies on 24 May 1865. The diary concludes with Heft's return to Ohio and discharge from military service in June 1865. The volume also contains about twenty pages of accounting from 1870. There is an unbound partial handwritten transcription, probably by Heft, of this diary and another diary not included in this collection.

Microfilm (M-5106/1)