Photocopy of a diary kept by Benjamin Franklin Hackett from September 25, 1862 to May 6, 1863 while he was serving as sergeant in Company F, Twelfth Vermont Volunteers. Hackett chronicles daily camp life, including information on the weather, food, and his health. Company F did not participate in any major battles but was mainly given guard duty. Hackett describes drills, reviews, and confederate raids.

Benjamin Franklin Hackett was born on November 6, 1826 probably in Windsor County, Vermont. He married Mary Emerson Morton in 1859 and enlisted as a sergeant in the Twelfth Vermont Volunteers, Company F, on August 19, 1862. He was mustered in on October 4, 1862 and was discharged from the service on July 14, 1863. After the war he and his family moved to Troy, Iowa where he kept a general store. In 1896 he and his wife moved to Moravia, Iowa where he was buried in 1905.