Autograph field ledger/diary by Henry S. Joy. Approximately 47 pages with writing, 8vo. Original tan morocco. Earliest entry dated 17 August 1861. Front cover inscribed: "H.S. Joy Rochester N.Y. / 1st Lieut. Henry S. Joy Qr. Master Van Alen [sic] Cavalry."

The working notebook of busy Quartermaster Henry S. Joy, with varying entries that include accounting, roster notes, equipment lists, and narrative accounts. Joy enlisted on 13 October 1861 as a 2nd lieutenant and was commissioned into Company D of the 3rd New York Cavalry. 

Notably, he records a visit on 20 August 1861 to the camp of the 33rd New York with Colonel Taylor, where he witnessed a review by General McClellan. Recording his impression of the general, he writes: "McClellan and staff rode through scrutinizing closely every man. He is a fine-looking man but has been so much exposed to the hot August sun that he is bronzed like a Texan." 

He continues with the even more noteworthy attendees, again providing his own impressions: "President Lincoln, Secretaries Seward, Cameron, and Chase were also present and witnessed the firing of the batter which commands the river and the bridge. Lincoln is rough and unassuming as when he was an ordinary lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. 'Pigmies perched on Alps are pigmies still!' Secretary Seward I have always had a great curiosity to see which was fully gratified. He is a different-looking man than I had imagined him to be with a full-leaf Panama Hat which concealed the whole of his countenance but his interminable & exhaustless nose. He resembles a moderate sized toad sitting under an overspreading cabbage leaf." 

He continues with Secretary Salmon P. Chase, whom he deems "a fine-looking man [with] a look of intelligence. Of Secretary Cameron I could not look at him without thinking of Pennsylvania Railroad Speculations and what excellent roads they were to transport the soldiers to Washington - superior to all others in the Union."

In a later entry on 14 September, he writes in anticipation of three companies of cavalry heading to join General Nathaniel P. Banks's Division. "Gen. Banks is within gunshot of our camp. I have seen him several times and like his looks very much and think him a man imminently fitted for the position he occupies."

Wonderful and descriptive eyewitness accounts of Lincoln and his top cabinet members and generals.

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