George Templeton Strong (1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer and diarist. His 2,250 page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the events of the American Civil War. Historian Paula Baker described him as "perhaps the northern equivalent of South Carolina's Mary Chesnut: quotable, opinionated, and a careful follower of events."
Biography
George Templeton Strong was born in New York in 1820 to moderate privilege, and lived to write intimately of the turbulent years leading up to and through the American Civil War, as well as the corrupt and turbulent years in New York following the war. In 1838, he graduated from Columbia College with high honors. On May 15, 1848, Strong married Ellen Ruggles in Grace Church, New York. In 1853, he was elected a trustee of Columbia College. Strong served for many years as a vestryman at the prominent Episcopal Trinity Church, New York on Wall Street. Strong helped found the United States Sanitary Commission, which helped ameliorate the horrible sufferings of wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. He was also treasurer and member of its executive committee throughout the war. He also helped to start the Union League Club of New York, an organization which pledged to "cultivate a profound national devotion." The organization provided a means to reconciling the whites and blacks of the South into the Republican Party. Strong funded a Union regiment during the war, and his wife served on a hospital ship. Strong died July 21, 1875. His 2,250 page diary, whose first entry was recorded on October 5, 1835, was discovered in the 1930s. Since age 15, Strong had written almost every day of his life for nearly 40 years. Excerpts from this diary are featured in Ken Burns' 1990 documentary The Civil War.
