Simonds, Lewis, ca.1838-1893
Rank:	Musician
Regiment:	9th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment. Co. (1862-1865) Band, 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps
Service:	1862 August 7-1865 June 10

Background note:

Born in Antrim, N.H., Lewis Simonds was living in Nashua in August, 1862, when he enlisted as a private in Co. F of the 9th New Hampshire Infantry. Less than two months later, his musical abilities earned him a transfer to the band of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps, and he remained with that band through the end of his enlistment almost three years later.

In January, 1864, Simonds and his band were stationed in Kentucky, but in April, they followed their commander, Ambrose E. Burnside, eastward to assist in the spring campaigns in Virginia. The band played its way through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg campaigns, but while their brigade was being decimated, the band experienced an altogether milder war. At Cold Harbor, for instance, Simonds reported "the Brigade went into the rifle pits," adding "the Band fell back to the teams as usual. It began to rain about five" (1864 June 4). For most of the year, the band was posted with brigade headquarters and in the rear of the lines and was rarely in the line of fire.

After mustering out of the service as Musician 2nd Class on June 10, 1865, Simonds returned to New Hampshire and settled down to life in Antrim. The war, however, never quite left Simonds. On October 29, 1893, he died suddenly of paralysis complicated by heart trouble stemming from a malarial infection contracted during the war. He left a wife, one son and two daughters.

Scope and contents:

Lewis Simonds is neither the most literate soldier represented in the collections of the Clements Library, nor does his journal for 1864 describe many of the dramatic scenes of the Civil War transpiring about him. Simonds was assigned to the band of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps, in 1864, a time when the division was involved in some of the heaviest fighting of the war in Virginia. While the fighting raged, however, Simonds and his bandmates generally remained safely ensconced at headquarters.

While there is little substantive information on military affairs, the diary does provide some insight into the life and activities of a band member, and in what it does not say, provides some interesting commentary on the psychological distancing experienced by many soldiers. Simonds' presence at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, for instance, comes through as more vicarious than real -- his reports of the carnage engulfing him are so brief, so flat, and so often moderated with comments on rain or rehearsal that they seldom seem real.

M-3352
Cat. 3/97 rsc

Link to subject index to the Lewis Simonds Journal

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