A Quiet Granite Stater

There is an unpublished account of the Civil War written by Simon Gooddell Griffin. He was an officer in the Ninth Corps, eventually being promoted to brigadier general after the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. By the end of the war, he led a division. Years after the war, he revisited his wartime experience and made proper edits to his account. It is rare to see someone's war experience re-edited by the person who wrote it, but in this case, most of the changes were minor, focusing on grammatical and contextual corrections.

Griffin was a fine soldier who served throughout the Civil War and deserves proper recognition for his efforts, such as his defense of the Union lines during a Confederate counterattack at Petersburg on 2 April 1865. Before joining the army, he practiced law and passed the bar exam in 1860. After the firing on Fort Sumter, he decided to help organize and muster the 3rd New Hampshire. He began the war as a captain and served in the early battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was later sent out west under General John Parke during the Siege of Vicksburg.

However, his rise to fame began in 1864 during the Virginia Campaign. Many Union officers joined the ranks of the wounded and killed due to the heavy fighting. Simon Griffin, with his unwavering bravery, demonstrated great aptitude on the field, which led to his rise in the ranks. He displayed gallantry at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on 18 May 1864. Ulysses Grant ordered a reconnaissance to see if the enemy was still in its place. Griffin led part of this mission, crossed ravines, and placed himself fifty yards away from enemy lines. The fire was too heavy, and they withdrew back to their entrenched line. However, Griffin led a couple of other efforts to determine the enemy's whereabouts. His courage was evident in his own words:

While my brigade lay over there beyond that ravine, twice I had to go over there from our former line on foot & return. That ravine was in plain sight of the enemy, & only 300 to 400 yards distant, & at each of the four times I passed over that place I could hear their bullets strike the ground all around me, -- they were above me & their shot would naturally strike the ground, sounding "Put, Put, Put." They were evidently taking aim at me & doing their best to kill me, & why they failed has always been a mystery to me.

Like many others in the American Civil War, Griffin has gone largely unnoticed by the Civil War community. However, his example and experience in the Civil War, coupled with his post-war contributions, helped bring about a close to the war. His faith in final victory shined through to Appomattox Courthouse. He later served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, continuing his service to the nation. His diary is a piece of scholarship for Civil War history, a testament to his enduring commitment.