Calvert's Civil War Memoir

Jarvis P. Calvert

In 1886, Mooresville photographer and publisher Jarvis P. Calvert (1842-1917) published his Civil War memoir, A Private Soldier's Recollections of the War of the Rebellion (Mooresville, IN : J. P. Calvert, 1886).  Calvert served in Company I of the 63rd Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers.  (Click the images to enlarge them.)

Click here to see a digital copy of the book

Calvert gave Mooresville Public Library (MPL) a copy of his book for its adult collection soon after the library's Carnegie building opened in 1916.

As far as I know, this is the only copy of this book in the world, so MPL keeps it well under lock-and-key.  That's the reason the library digitized the book and made it available as an eBook (PDF format) through its Evergreen Indiana online catalog.  Calvert presents much of his recollections in a matter-of-fact manner, relating some harrowing moments stoically.  In fact, stoicism was Calvert's watchword; his entire memoir is filled with a calm, cool, collected representation of the transpired events.  Perhaps the lapse of 20 years between his war service and publication allowed him to distance himself somewhat from the horrors, as well as the monotony, of military engagement (and the endless waiting in-between battles).  Calvert provides an insider's view of what it was like to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War, and his contribution to personal accounts of the war adds to our understanding of the hardships and sacrifices endured.

Calvert photograph (circa 1885) from atop the steeple of the

M.E. Church, looking north along Indiana Street

Calvert's photograph of Mooresville High School (1914),

which stood next to the Academy Building

 

Calvert's advertisements from the 1911 and 1917

Mooresville High School yearbooks

After the Civil War, Calvert became a successful photographer and newspaper publisher (his Mooresville Midget was published for several years, competing with the Mooresville Guide [later, Mooresville Times]).  He had an art and photography studio next to his home of East Harrison Street, just east of the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church, for whom he served as choir director for 40 years.  He was a friend and colleague of famed Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), who used to hang-out at Calvert's studio discussing art and photography when Riley wasn't busy working as a sign painter in a downtown Mooresville shop.

The Perce Building (Mooresville Moments #4)

where James Whitcomb Riley worked in a paint shop

Calvert's studio and residence (circa 1910) on East Harrison Street

(a block south of downtown Mooresville)

Calvert's home on East Harrison Street (circa 1880)

Snapshots around Calvert's home on East Harrison Street (circa 1910)
taken by his son, P. H. Calvert

To learn more about J. P. Calvert and his life and times, please see the following:

• Calvert's obituary in our Legacy Links obituary database, including a newspaper obituary (under "obituary file," click "view image"), as well as a biographical sketch of Calvert by Charles Blanchard (1884) (under "other file," click "view image").