The diary of Private Alexander Hobbs, 42nd Massachusetts Regiment: The life of a Union soldier in Texas

Alexander Hobbs's diary records, from a Union perspective, the excitement of enlistment, impressions of southerners--both black and white--the confusion of combat, and the depression and helplessness of a prisoner of war. Hobbs, serving the Union as an infantryman in Louisiana and Texas, also preserves his experiences at a critical change in Civil War policy concerning parole and exchange. He is one of the last Civil War soldiers to be incarcerated as a parolee under the Dix-Hill Cartel by his own government. Never exchanged, he finally returns to Massachusetts. Originally from Canada, Hobbs enlisted with the Forty-second Massachusetts Regiment in September 1862, fought in the Battle of Galveston on January 1, 1863, and was captured there. After being imprisoned in Houston, he was marched as a parolee from Texas to Louisiana, where he was held in a Union parole camp until discharged in July 1863