Dalton State College hosted a special reception on Wednesday to celebrate the newest addition to the Bandy Heritage Center’s physical collection: the diary of William K. Pilsbury, a soldier who was wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga, journalist, and descendant of the Mouzon Huguenot family.
“We talk a lot about the teaching aspect at Dalton State, but we also have a duty as the public college in northwest Georgia in preserving knowledge, and the Bandy Center is squarely at the center of that,” John Fuchko, president of Dalton State College said. “I am certainly very grateful to the late Jack Bandy and the entire Bandy family as well as all the donors who have supported the college and the Bandy Heritage Center over the years.”
The diary offers a rare, firsthand glimpse into the life of William K. Pilsbury. A South Carolina native who settled in Georgia, Pilsbury served as a soldier in the Civil War and later became a newspaper correspondent for the Atlanta Journal and the Macon Telegraph.
Fuchko recognized Bitsy McFarland, a longtime friend and supporter of Dalton State, for her role in connecting donors to the Bandy Heritage Center.
“Now, the diary of Mr. Pilsbury is coming to roost, in the shadow of where he fought at the Battle of Chickamauga,” she said.
During the reception, the book was displayed and open to a page reflecting on tremendous loss of life at the Battle of Chickamauga. The diary—crafted from a repurposed textbook—includes pasted-in articles, letters, images, and handwritten notes. It serves as a rich scrapbook of Pilsbury’s military service, religious reflections, and family history, complete with penciled commentary and a poem about Chickamauga.
“We’re incredibly privileged to have it in terms of its historical significance,” said Matthew Gramling, director of the Bandy Heritage Center. “It is a truly unique document… a unique piece of not only Civil War, but postbellum American material culture.”
Although the diary has been available digitally for several years, its physical arrival at the Bandy Heritage Center is a significant moment for the institution. The physical diary had been in the care of Kathy Hicks, of Dawson, Ga., who played a key role in ensuring its preservation and transfer.
“Dalton’s always been special to me because I visited from the time I was a child,” Hicks shared. “I feel kind of like I’ve come home, and so has the diary… I’m so thankful that you can preserve it before it deteriorates any further.”
The Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia, housed on the Dalton State campus, collects, preserves and interprets the material and cultural history of Northwest Georgia’s many communities. The collection is acquired by loan, donation and purchase and closely supports the institution’s mission in five central collecting areas: Native American history, pioneer settlement and Appalachian culture, Civil War, the textile industry, and modern Georgia.
To learn more about the Bandy Heritage Center and to see digitized content from the Pilsbury diary, visit bandyheritagecenter.org.
