A Quaker officer in the Civil War: Henry Gawthrop of the 4th Delaware

When the call went out in 1862 for volunteersfor Delaware's 4th Infantry Regiment, a number of men from prominentQuaker families came forward to fight for the Union.

Deeply patriotic andstrongly opposed to slavery, they served with distinction in some of the latercampaigns of the Civil War, from Cold Harbor through Appomattox.

Among them wasHenry Gawthrop. Commissioned a first lieutenant in Company F, he saw action duringthe Siege of Petersburg and at the Battle of Five Forks.

Fifty years after thewar, he drew on his diary and letters from the war years to create a uniquememoir that is among the most comprehensive and detailed of any Delaware CivilWar veteran.

This is his story.