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| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Southern Soldier's Letters Home Samuel Augustus Burney, 2002 Samuel A. Burney, born in April 1840, was the son of Thomas Jefferson Burney and Julia Shields Burney. He graduated from Mercer University (then at Penfield, Georgia) in 1860. He joined the Panola Guards, an infantry component of Thomas R. R. Cobb's Georgia Legion, in July 1861. For the next four years he served in the Army of Northern Virginia both in Virginia and in Tennessee. Burney was wounded at Chancellorsville in May 1863, and as a result of his wound he was placed in disability in March 1864 and served the remainder of the war on commissary duty in southwest Georgia. After the war, Burney returned to Mercer's school of theology, was ordained into the Baptist ministry, and served as pastor of several churches in Morgan County. He was pastor of the Madison Baptist Church until shortly before his death in 1896. These letters of a college graduate written to his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Shepherd Burney are lyrical and beautifully written. Burney describes battles, camp life, theology, and the day-to-day dreariness of life in the army. This is an astounding collection of letters for anyone interested in the Civil War, or the South. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: War Letters Andrew Carroll, 2008-06-23 In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project, with the goal of remembering Americans who have served their nation and preserving their letters for posterity. Since then, over 50,000 letters have poured in from around the country. Nearly two hundred of them comprise this amazing collection -- including never-before-published letters that appear in the new afterword. Here are letters from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf war, Somalia, and Bosnia -- dramatic eyewitness accounts from the front lines, poignant expressions of love for family and country, insightful reflections on the nature of warfare. Amid the voices of common soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, nurses, journalists, spies, and chaplains are letters by such legendary figures as Gen. William T. Sherman, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernie Pyle, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Julia Child, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Collected in War Letters, they are an astonishing historical record, a powerful tribute to those who fought, and a celebration of the enduring power of letters. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Civil War Letters Bob Blaisdell, 2012-01-01 Wartime letters include correspondence of Union and Confederate sympathizers and soldiers of all ranks. Authentic illustrations accompany insightful missives by Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Whitman, Davis, and many of their contemporaries. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Love and War Augustus Valerius Ball, 2010 Ball's circumstances and experiences allowed him to glimpse the war through two sets of eyes, that of a loving husband, and of an increasingly disillusioned physician. The inclusion of Ball's medicinal recipe book is the first of its kind to appear in print completely annotated. Readers will find themselves educated about the medical and herbal lore of that era. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Love and Valor Jacob B. Ritner, 2000 Vividly depicting life both on the battlefield and at the home front during the Civil War, Love and Valor is a priceless collection of letters exchanged between Captain Jacob Ritner and his wife Emeline. While Jacob recounts all the battles he fought in compelling detail, Emeline movingly records the lives of those left behind to raise families and manage farms in their husbands'absence. Love and Valor is also the story of a family of Iowa abolitionists who help to make this book a must read. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Soldier's General John C. Oeffinger, 2003-04-03 During his service in the Confederate army, Major General Lafayette McLaws (1821-1897) served under and alongside such famous officers as Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, James Longstreet, and John B. Hood. He played a significant role in some of the most crucial battles of the Civil War, including Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Despite this, no biography of McLaws or history of his division has ever been published. A Soldier's General gathers ninety-five letters written by McLaws to his family between 1858 and 1865, making these valuable resources available to a wide audience for the first time. The letters, painstakingly transcribed from McLaws's notoriously poor handwriting, contain a wealth of opinion and information about life and morale in the Confederate army, Civil War-era politics, the Southern press, and the impact of war on the Confederate home front. Among the fascinating threads the letters trace is the story of McLaws's fractured relationship with childhood friend Longstreet, who had McLaws relieved of command in 1863. John Oeffinger's extensive introduction sketches McLaws's life from his beginnings in Augusta, Georgia, through his early experiences in the U.S. Army, his marriage, his Civil War exploits, and his postwar years. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The Stilwell Letters William Ross Stilwell, 2002 The 53rd Georgia, on reaching Virginia, was immediately assigned to the brigade commanded by Paul Jones Semmes, a wealthy Columbus banker. The brigade was later commanded by Goode Bryan and then by James Philip Simms. The 53rd Georgia was in the Corps of James Longstreet and fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Cedar Creek.. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A War of the People Jeffrey D. Marshall, 1999 The Civil War left no Vermonters untouched, and few families free from pain. More than 140 letters -- carefully selected from some 9000 in several archives -- convey in personal terms the combat experience of Vermonters throughout the war. Vermont raised seventeen infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, three batteries of light artillery and three companies of sharpshooters -- nearly 35,000 soldiers in all. As a result of this impressive commitment, Vermont suffered one of the highest rates of military deaths of any Union state. A War of the People covers the war chronologically, with editor Jeffrey D. Marshall providing running commentary on both the war overall, and Vermonters' experiences. Supplemented with maps and photographs, it includes many voices -- from privates to colonels, mothers, wives, and best friends, young and old -- writing about battle narratives, camp life, financial advice, family matters, and much more. An African-American soldier from Hinesburgh, a French-Canadian soldier who enlisted in Milton, and dozens of others record their experiences in unforgettable words. Marshall's battlefront/homefront choice of letters provides a deeper understanding of the social and political dimensions that, although secondary to military concerns, were an integral part of Vermont's war years. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: I Remain Yours Christopher Hager, 2018-01-08 When North and South went to war, millions of American families endured their first long separation. For men in the armies—and their wives, children, parents, and siblings at home—letter writing was the sole means to communicate. Yet for many of these Union and Confederate families, taking pen to paper was a new and daunting task. I Remain Yours narrates the Civil War from the perspective of ordinary people who had to figure out how to salve the emotional strain of war and sustain their closest relationships using only the written word. Christopher Hager presents an intimate history of the Civil War through the interlaced stories of common soldiers and their families. The previously overlooked words of a carpenter from Indiana, an illiterate teenager from Connecticut, a grieving mother in the mountains of North Carolina, and a blacksmith’s daughter on the Iowa prairie reveal through their awkward script and expression the personal toll of war. Is my son alive or dead? Returning soon or never? Can I find words for the horrors I’ve seen or the loneliness I feel? Fear, loss, and upheaval stalked the lives of Americans straining to connect the battlefront to those they left behind. Hager shows how relatively uneducated men and women made this new means of communication their own, turning writing into an essential medium for sustaining relationships and a sense of belonging. Letter writing changed them and they in turn transformed the culture of letters into a popular, democratic mode of communication. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: First World War Poems from the Front Paul O'Prey, 2016-11-10 From the worst horrors of modern trench warfare a small handful of soldiers and nurses created a body of poetry that is so vivid and intense that one hundred years later it has engraved itself on our national consciousness. This anthology focuses on those poets who were on the front line, from the famous Sassoon, Owens and Graves, to nurses like Vera Brittain. The poems are accompanied by a brief and accessible introduction, which sets the context for a reader new to the poems, as well as short biographical profiles of the poets. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: For Cause and Comrades James M. McPherson, 1997-04-03 General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that. Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--the best Government ever made--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard, one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace. Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice, one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, I still love my country. McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called history writing of the highest order. For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: In Their Letters, in Their Words Mark Flotow, 2019-10-14 WINNER, Russell P. Strange Memorial Book of the Year Award from the Illinois State Historical Society, 2020! A vital lifeline to home during the Civil War, the letters of soldiers to their families and friends remain a treasure for those seeking to connect with and understand the most turbulent period of American history. Rather than focus on the experiences of a few witnesses, this impressively researched book documents 165 Illinois Civil War soldiers’ and sailors’ lives through the lens of their personal letters. Editor Mark Flotow chose a variety of letter writers who hailed from counties throughout the state, served in different branches of the military at different ranks, and represented the gamut of social experiences and war outcomes. Flotow provides extensive quotations from the letters. By allowing the soldiers to speak for themselves, he captures what mattered most to them. Illinois soldiers wrote about their reasons for enlisting; the nature of training and duties; necessities like eating, sleeping, marching, and making the best of often harsh and chaotic circumstances; Southern culture; slavery; their opinions of commanding officers and the president; disease, medicine, and hospitals; their prisoner-of-war experiences; and the ways they left the army. Through letters from afar, many soldiers sought to manage their homes and farms, while some single men attempted to woo their sweethearts. Flotow includes brief biographies for each soldier quoted in the book, weaves historical context and analysis with the letters, and organizes them by topic. Thus, intimate details cited in individual letters reveal their significance for those who lived and shaped this tumultuous era. The result is not only insightful history but also compelling reading. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The Heart of a Soldier George Edward Pickett, 1913 |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Dear Catharine, Dear Taylor Taylor Peirce, Catherine L. Peirce, 2002 During that time he saw his wife only twice on furlough, but still stayed in close contact with her through their intimate and dedicated exchange of letters.. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie James King Newton, 1995 Unlike many of his fellows, [James Newton] was knowledgeable, intuitive, and literate; like many of his fellows he was cast into the role of soldier at only eighteen years of age. He was polished enough to write drumhead and firelight letters of fine literary style. It did not take long for this farm boy turned private to discover the grand design of the conflict in which he was engaged, something which many of the officers leading the armies never did discover.--Victor Hicken, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society When I wrote to you last I was at Madison with no prospect of leaving very soon, but I got away sooner than I expected to. So wrote James Newton upon leaving Camp Randall for Vicksburg in 1863 with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Newton, who had been a rural schoolteacher before he joined the Union army in 1861, wrote to his parents of his experiences at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, on the Red River, in Missouri, at Nashville, at Mobile, and as a prisoner of war. His letters, selected and edited by noted historian Stephen E. Ambrose, reveal Newton as a young man who matured in the war, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie reveals Newton as a young man who grew to maturity through his Civil War experience, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. Writing soberly about the less attractive aspects of army life, Newton's comments on fraternizing with the Rebs, on officers, and on discipline are touched with a sense of humor--a soldier's best friend, he claimed. He also became sensitive to the importance of political choices. After giving Lincoln the first vote he had ever cast, Newton wrote: In doing so I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: My Dear Wife and Children Nick K. Adams, 2015-10-19 What does a father write to his wife and young children when he's gone to war? Does he explain why he left them? How does he answer their constant questions about his return? Which of his experiences does he relate, and which does he pass over? Should he describe his feelings of separation and loneliness? These questions are as relevant today as they were over 150 years ago, when David Brainard Griffin, a corporal in Company F of the 2nd Minnesota Regiment of Volunteers, wrote to those he left behind on the family's Minnesota prairie homestead while he fought to preserve the Union. His letters cover the period from his enlistment at Minnesota's Fort Snelling in September 1861, to his death in Georgia during the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. One hundred of them were preserved and passed down in his family. They, along with one from his daughter as she asked the next generation to read her father's words, have been carefully transcribed and annotated by a great-great-grandson, Nick K. Adams, allowing further generations to experience Griffin's answers to these questions. Filled with poignant images of his daily activities, his fears and exhilarations in military conflict, and his thoughts and emotions as the Civil War kept him apart from his family, these letters offer a fascinating insight into the personal experiences of a common soldier in the American Civil War. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: For Love & Liberty Robin Young, 2006 The true story of Rhode Island Civil War soldier Sullivan Ballou, best known as the character who wrote an eloquent letter to his wife in Ken Burn's The Civil War, describes the promising law career he left to join the Union Army, his relationship with his wife and two sons, and the First Battle of Bull Run during which he lost his life. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Letters to Amanda Jeffrey C. Lowe, Sam Hodges, 2021-11 The letters of Sergeant Major Marion Hill Fitzpatrick, soldier in the 45th Georgia Regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia, have been around for two decades in a private family printing, but are now published for the first time complete with annotations. Fitzpatrick wrote his wife Amanda over one hundred letters, frequently describing both the horror of combat and the deplorable conditions of hospitals. Fighting the corps of A. P. Hill, Fitzpatrick, an extremely literate individual, reveals his loyalty for the Confederacy and most of all to his family. His letters reveal a man who longed to be home with his beloved wife and their newborn son. These letters testify to the humanity, courage, and dedication of the civil war soldier. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Soldier's Letters Julius D. Allen (d), 1893 |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The Civil War Letters of Abner C. Smith Claire Smith, 2022-09-06 Letters Written by Union soldier Abner C. Smith to His Family in East Haddam, Connecticut, 1862-1865. Transcribed and Annotated. One by one, his wife saved his letters, until, at the end of two-and-a-half years, there were 113. His children saved them and began the passing of the letters to the next generations, who lovingly preserved them. Now they are in book form, transcribed and annotated. Abner C. Smith's letters tell the story of the Civil War in the voice on an ordinary Union soldier who tries with all his might to raise his children and support his wife through the written word only. Hope, patriotism, faith, courage, humor, and love weave together with his worries about the cow, the wood, the crops, the finances, the health of his children, the education of his children, the laziness of his children, and how to be sure his one daughter, the teenaged Georgiana, would be a good girl. As part of the 20th Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers, his letters come from New Haven, Washington D.C., Virginia, Gettysburg, Alabama, Tennessee, somewhere is the woods of Georgia while on Sherman's March to Sea, Savannah, and from a Hospital near Goldsboro, North Carolina. (The companion book, Georgiana, Like So Many, is the story of Abner C. Smith's daughter.) |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Love Letters from the Civil War John B. Chapman, Donna L. Chapman, 2000-01-01 A collection of letters from William Coffin to his wife Rachelduring the Civil War. The Coffin family settled in Dallas County, Iowa, and for 138 years over 133 letters were safely kept in a walnut box. The letters have been reprinted just as they were written. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood Stephen Hood, 2023-06-15 Scholars hail Confederate General John Bell Hood's personal papers as the most important discovery in Civil War scholarship in the last half century. This invaluable cache includes documents relating to Hood's U.S. Army service, Civil War career, and postwar life. It includes letters from Confederate and Union officers, unpublished battle reports, detailed medical reports relating to Hood's two major wounds, and dozens of letters exchanged between Hood and his wife Anna. This treasure trove is being made available for the first time in paperback for both professional and amateur Civil War historians in The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood, edited and annotated by award-winning author Stephen M. Hood. The historical community long believed General Hood's papers were lost or destroyed, and numerous books and articles were written about him without the benefit of these invaluable documents. In fact, the papers had been carefully preserved for generations by Hood's descendants. In 2012, collateral descendent Stephen Hood was given access to these papers as part of his research for his book John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General (Savas Beatie, 2013). This 200+ document collection sheds important light on some of the war's lingering mysteries and controversies. For example, letters from Confederate officers help explain Hood's failure to entrap Schofield's Union army at Spring Hill, Tennessee, on November 29, 1864. Another letter by Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee helps to explain Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's gallant but reckless conduct that resulted in his death at Franklin. Lee also lodges serious allegations against Confederate Maj. Gen. William Bate's troops. Other papers explain, for the first time, the purpose and intent behind Hood's controversial memoir Advance and Retreat, and validate its contents. While these and others offer a military perspective of Hood the general, the revealing letters between he and Anna, his beloved and devoted wife, help us better understand Hood the man and husband. Historians and other writers have spent generations speculating about Hood's motives, beliefs, actions, and objectives and the result has not always been flattering or even fully honest. Now, long-believed lost firsthand accounts previously unavailable offer insights into the character, personality, and military operations of John Bell Hood the general, husband, and father. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Soldier Boy Charles Oliver Musser, 1995-11 Blood and anger, bragging and pain, are all part of this young Iowa soldier's vigorous words about war and soldiering. A twenty-year-old farmer from Council Bluffs, Charles O. Musser was one of the 76,000 Iowans who enlisted to wear the blue uniform. He was a prolific writer, penning at least 130 letters home during his term of service with the 29th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Soldier Boy makes a significant contribution to the literature of the common soldier in the Civil War. Moreover, it takes a rare look at the Trans-Mississippi theater, which has traditionally been undervalued by historians. Always Musser dutifully wrote and mailed his letters home. With a commendable eye for historical detail, he told of battles and marches, guerrilla and siege warfare, camp life and garrison soldiering, morale and patriotism, Copperheads and contraband, and Lincoln's reelection and assassination, creating a remarkable account of activities in this almost forgotten backwater of the war. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Confederate Englishman Henry Wemyss Feilden, 2013 The wartime correspondence of a British officer turned Confederate captain under P. G. T. Beauregard |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: With this Pledge Tamera Alexander, 2019-01-08 From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves real-life love letters into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of the Civil War. “Beautifully-drawn characters and rich history in With This Pledge work seamlessly to demonstrate that Christ’s love and romantic love can triumph even in our darkest moments.” —Lynn Austin, bestselling author Elizabeth “Lizzie” Clouston’s quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause—but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer. The Carnton home where she is governess is converted into a Confederate field hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death. Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend. As a young soldier lies dying in Lizzie’s arms, she vows to relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy’s first name. That same night, decorated Mississippi sharpshooter Captain Roland Ward Jones extracts a different promise from Lizzie: that she intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate his leg. Lizzie is nothing if not a woman of her word, earning the soldiers’ respect as she tends to the wounded within Carnton’s walls. None is more admiring than Captain Jones, who doesn’t realize she is pledged to another. But as Lizzie’s heart softens toward the Confederate captain, she discovers that his moral ground is at odds with her own. Now torn between love, principles, and promises made, she struggles to be true to her heart while standing for what she knows is right—no matter the cost. From the pages of history and the personal accounts of those who endured the Battle of Franklin, Tamera Alexander weaves the real-life love letters between Captain Roland Ward Jones and Miss Elizabeth Clouston into a story of unlikely romance first kindled amid the shadows of war. “Alexander’s With This Pledge dusts off the archives and breathes life into the Battle of Franklin: believed to be the most brutal battle in the Civil War. Through Tamera Alexander’s indomitable heroine, Lizzie Clouston, who transforms from governess to nurse out of necessity, we find ourselves contemplating our own inner strength should we also be faced with the unthinkable. Tamera Alexander’s With This Pledge is not only historical fiction at its finest, but its most compelling.” —Jolina Petersheim, bestselling author of How the Light Gets In “Tamera Alexander has once again given readers a beautifully written story full of strong characters and tender romance—all while staying true to the actual history of the people and events she describes. From the horrors of war to the hope of blossoming love, Lizzie and Roland’s story will live in my heart for a very long time.” —Anne Mateer, author of Playing by Heart |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: A Love No Less Pamela Newkirk, 2003 A Delightful paean to African American love, this treasury of fifty letters written by well known figures and ordinary folk alike resonates with the joy and tenderness of romance, and offers glimpses into the social, literary, and political lives of black Americans throughout the last two centuries. An elegantly designed volume, printed in sepia and enhanced with photographs, A LOVE NO LESS presents the letters of African American lovers of all walks of life--from slave letters to the celebrated turn-of-the-twentieth-century poet Paul Laurence Dunbar to soldiers fighting World War II, to notable entertainers, businessmen, and civic leaders. Whether they were penned by literary masters or hastily scribbled by soldiers writing home to their wives or girlfriends, the letters are eloquent expressions of the writers' most intimate feelings and touching revelations of the things that matter most in their lives. A LOVE NO LESS is a testament to black love and to the bonds that endure in the face of physical separation, harsh times, and personal misfortunes. It also provides a peek into the more public arena, as writers tell their lovers about their everyday activities and encounters. Paul Laurence Dunbar writes to his wife about meeting Booker T. Washington and attending a lecture by W. E. B. DuBois. Letters from the Harlem Renaissance capture the excitement and vibrancy of that extraordinary period with stories about dinners, theater parties, shows and social outings with Langston Hughes, Carl Van Vechten and other luminaries. In a letter to her new husband written in the 1930s, stage and screen star Fredi Washington describes seeing a stereo for the first time and recounts hernegotiations for a role in a Paramount film. An enchanting and inspiring look at the power of love to transform and sustain, A LOVE NO LESS is the perfect gift for Valentines Day, anniversaries, birthdays, and weddings, a book that everyone who has ever been in love will treasure. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Yours in Filial Regard Kassia Waggoner, Adam Nemmers, 2015-10-30 In March of 1861 Texas seceded from the Union, and the Love brothers of Limestone County—Cyrus, Samuel, James, and John—enlisted to fight for the Confederate cause. For the next four years, the brothers travelled the war-torn South as cavalry in Terry's Texas Rangers, seeing action in some of the fiercest battles in the Western Theater, yet faithfully sending letters home to their expectant family. Complete with a scholarly introduction shedding insight into the Love family, their travels, and their family communication network, this volume collects, transcribes, and annotates 78 letters by eight authors spanning the entire Civil War. In addition to soldiers’ correspondence, the collection also contains letters written to and from their female relatives on the domestic front. Yours in Filial Regards: The Civil War Letters of a Texas Family offers a fascinating inside perspective of the Civil War from both the Confederate battle lines and the home front. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The War for the Common Soldier Peter S. Carmichael, 2018-11-02 How did Civil War soldiers endure the brutal and unpredictable existence of army life during the conflict? This question is at the heart of Peter S. Carmichael's sweeping new study of men at war. Based on close examination of the letters and records left behind by individual soldiers from both the North and the South, Carmichael explores the totality of the Civil War experience--the marching, the fighting, the boredom, the idealism, the exhaustion, the punishments, and the frustrations of being away from families who often faced their own dire circumstances. Carmichael focuses not on what soldiers thought but rather how they thought. In doing so, he reveals how, to the shock of most men, well-established notions of duty or disobedience, morality or immorality, loyalty or disloyalty, and bravery or cowardice were blurred by war. Digging deeply into his soldiers' writing, Carmichael resists the idea that there was a common soldier but looks into their own words to find common threads in soldiers' experiences and ways of understanding what was happening around them. In the end, he argues that a pragmatic philosophy of soldiering emerged, guiding members of the rank and file as they struggled to live with the contradictory elements of their violent and volatile world. Soldiering in the Civil War, as Carmichael argues, was never a state of being but a process of becoming. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Faith, Valor, and Devotion William Porcher Dubose, 2010 Collectively these extraordinary documents illustrate the workings of a mind and heart devoted to his religion and dedicated to service in the Confederate ranks. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune Robert Gould Shaw, 2011-08-15 On the Boston Common stands one of the great Civil War memorials, a magnificent bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts the black soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry marching alongside their young white commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. When the philosopher William James dedicated the memorial in May 1897, he stirred the assembled crowd with these words: There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in the very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune. In this book Shaw speaks for himself with equal eloquence through nearly two hundred letters he wrote to his family and friends during the Civil War. The portrait that emerges is of a man more divided and complex--though no less heroic--than the Shaw depicted in the celebrated film Glory. The pampered son of wealthy Boston abolitionists, Shaw was no abolitionist himself, but he was among the first patriots to respond to Lincoln's call for troops after the attack on Fort Sumter. After Cedar Mountain and Antietam, Shaw knew the carnage of war firsthand. Describing nightfall on the Antietam battlefield, he wrote, the crickets chirped, and the frogs croaked, just as if nothing unusual had happened all day long, and presently the stars came out bright, and we lay down among the dead, and slept soundly until daylight. There were twenty dead bodies within a rod of me. When Federal war aims shifted from an emphasis on restoring the Union to the higher goal of emancipation for four million slaves, Shaw's mother pressured her son into accepting the command of the North's vanguard black regiment, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts. A paternalist who never fully reconciled his own prejudices about black inferiority, Shaw assumed the command with great reluctance. Yet, as he trained his recruits in Readville, Massachusetts, during the early months of 1963, he came to respect their pluck and dedication. There is not the least doubt, he wrote his mother, that we shall leave the state, with as good a regiment, as any that has marched. Despite such expressions of confidence, Shaw in fact continued to worry about how well his troops would perform under fire. The ultimate test came in South Carolina in July 1863, when the Fifty-fourth led a brave but ill-fated charge on Fort Wagner, at the approach to Charleston Harbor. As Shaw waved his sword and urged his men forward, an enemy bullet felled him on the fort's parapet. A few hours later the Confederates dumped his body into a mass grave with the bodies of twenty of his men. Although the assault was a failure from a military standpoint, it proved the proposition to which Shaw had reluctantly dedicated himself when he took command of the Fifty-fourth: that black soldiers could indeed be fighting men. By year's end, sixty new black regiments were being organized. A previous selection of Shaw's correspondence was privately published by his family in 1864. For this volume, Russell Duncan has restored many passages omitted from the earlier edition and has provided detailed explanatory notes to the letters. In addition he has written a lengthy biographical essay that places the young colonel and his regiment in historical context. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Veiled in Smoke (The Windy City Saga Book #1) Jocelyn Green, 2020-02-04 Meg and Sylvie Townsend manage the family bookshop and care for their father, Stephen, a veteran still suffering in mind and spirit from his time as a POW during the Civil War. But when the Great Fire sweeps through Chicago's business district, they lose much more than just their store. The sisters become separated from their father and make a harrowing escape from the flames with the help of Chicago Tribune reporter Nate Pierce. Once the smoke clears away, they reunite with Stephen, only to learn soon after that their family friend was murdered on the night of the fire. Even more shocking, Stephen is charged with the crime and committed to the Cook County Insane Asylum. Though homeless and suddenly unemployed, Meg must not only gather the pieces of her shattered life, but prove her father's innocence before the asylum truly drives him mad. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: My Dear Molly James Edwin Love, 2015 Consists of the 166 letters that St. Louisan James E. Love wrote to his fiancée during his Civil War service from 1861 to 1865. Introductory text and annotations place the letters in historical context-- |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: The Hour of Our Nation's Agony William Cowper Nelson, 2007 The Hour of Our Nation's Agony offers a revealing look into the life of a Confederate soldier as he is transformed by the war. Through these literate, perceptive, and illuminating letters, readers can trace Lt. William Cowper Nelson's evolution from an idealistic young soldier to a battle-hardened veteran. Nelson joined the army at the age of nineteen, leaving behind a close-knit family in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He served for much of the war in the Third Corps of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. By the end of the conflict, Nelson had survived many major battles, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, as well as the long siege of Petersburg. In his correspondence, Nelson discusses in detail the soldier's life, religion in the ranks, his love for and heartbreak at being separated from his family, and Southern identity. Readers will find his reflections on slavery, religion, and the Confederacy particularly revealing. Seeing and participating in the slaughter of other human beings overpowered Nelson's romantic idealism. He had long imagined war as a noble struggle of valor, selflessness, and glory. But the sight of wounded men with blood streaming from their wounds, dying slow, lonely deaths showed Nelson the true nature of war. Nelson's letters reveal the conflicting emotions that haunted many soldiers. Despite his bitter hatred of the ruthless invaders of our beloved South, the sight of wounded Union prisoners moved him to compassion. Nelson's ability to write about irreconcilable moments when he felt both kindness and cruelty toward the enemy with introspection, candor, and sensitivity makes The Hour of Our Nation's Agony more than just a collection of missives. Jennifer Ford places Nelson squarely in the middle of the historiographic debate over the degree of disillusionment felt by Civil War soldiers, arguing that Nelson-like many soldiers-was a complex individual who does not fit neatly into one interpretation. Jennifer W. Ford is head of special collections and associate professor at the J. D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi, where the where the collection containing Lt. Nelson's letters and other family documents is held. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: They Fought Like Demons DeAnne Blanton, Lauren Cook Wike, 2002-09-01 Popular images of women during the American Civil War include self-sacrificing nurses, romantic spies, and brave ladies maintaining hearth and home in the absence of their men. However, as DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook show in their remarkable new study, that conventional picture does not tell the entire story. Hundreds of women assumed male aliases, disguised themselves in men’s uniforms, and charged into battle as Union and Confederate soldiers—facing down not only the guns of the adversary but also the gender prejudices of society. They Fought Like Demons is the first book to fully explore and explain these women, their experiences as combatants, and the controversial issues surrounding their military service. Relying on more than a decade of research in primary sources, Blanton and Cook document over 240 women in uniform and find that their reasons for fighting mirrored those of men—-patriotism, honor, heritage, and a desire for excitement. Some enlisted to remain with husbands or brothers, while others had dressed as men before the war. Some so enjoyed being freed from traditional women’s roles that they continued their masquerade well after 1865. The authors describe how Yankee and Rebel women soldiers eluded detection, some for many years, and even merited promotion. Their comrades often did not discover the deception until the “young boy” in their company was wounded, killed, or gave birth. In addition to examining the details of everyday military life and the harsh challenges of -warfare for these women—which included injury, capture, and imprisonment—Blanton and Cook discuss the female warrior as an icon in nineteenth-century popular culture and why twentieth-century historians and society ignored women soldiers’ contributions. Shattering the negative assumptions long held about Civil War distaff soldiers, this sophisticated and dynamic work sheds much-needed light on an unusual and overlooked facet of the Civil War experience. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Behind The Lines Andrew Carroll, 2013-10-31 'Quite simply, this is one of the greatest, most riveting books of war letters I have ever read.' Stephen E. Ambrose on War Letters In 2001 Andrew Carroll authored the US top ten bestseller, War Letters - a unique compilation of extraordinary correspondence from American soldiers serving in US conflicts throughout history. Following the publication of this landmark work Andrew was inundated with letters from soldiers all around the world (to date he has a staggering 75,000 letters). Inspired by these messages he embarked on a quest to discover other previously unpublished letters written during conflicts around the globe. For three years Andrew travelled the world zealously collecting letters from over 35 different countries including Great Britain. Behind the Lines is the remarkable anthology that has been put together as a result of this work. The first book of its kind, Behind the Lines will be a dramatic, intimate and unprecedented look at warfare as seen through the eyes of troops and civilians. Unparalleled in geographical and historical scope it covers all major global conflicts from World War I and II and the American Revolution, up to Afghanistan and Iraq. Featuring never-before-seen letters and emails from war zones, and including the memories and thoughts from those on both sides of the hostilities documented, Behind the Lines will be a truly emotive and poignant depiction of war assembled by a uniquely talented and driven author who always keeps the general reader and narrative in mind. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: My Dear Mother - Civil War Letters to Dedham from the Lathrop Brothers Dedham Historical Society & Museum, Stuart R. Christie, 2020-11-23 Letters written by three brothers from Dedham, Massachusetts, to various family members at home describing pivotal battles, details of life in camp, and other aspects of their experiences as Union soldiers during the Civil War. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Lifelines: The Bowen Love Letters Susan Lee Ward, 2020-04-21 Lifelines: The Bowen Love Letters By: Susan Lee Ward “Katie Bowen was literate, observant, curious, compassionate, lucid, and philosophical. Her letters are informative, affectionate, and delightful to read. These letters constitute one of the finest pre-Civil War collections about military life.” Dr. Leo E. Oliva, Santa Fe Trail Historian Catherine “Katie” Bowen (nee Cary) was born and raised in Houlton, Maine, where her family ran a lumber and mercantile business. After a whirlwind courtship, Katie married a dashing young West Point graduate, Second Lieutenant Isaac Bowen, who left soon after the wedding for the Mexican War. When he returned safely from the war, Katie and Isaac embarked on the adventure of a lifetime: enjoying tea and discussing philosophy with Ralph Waldo Emerson; drinking a soldier’s cracker toddy and smoking cigars with General Zachary Taylor, Colonel Jefferson Davis, and Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, one of Isaac’s West Point classmates; chatting fireside with Susan Shelby Magoffin, another well-known Santa Fe Trail traveler; sipping champagne at the White House with family friend, President Millard Fillmore; hearing crucial military intelligence from frontier scout, Kit Carson; and, being entertained with tall tales about Mississippi River life by steamboat Cub Pilot, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, later known as Mark Twain. The Bowen Love Letters reveal intimate details about young lives full of passion and adventure - lives that ended tragically in 1858 when Katie and Isaac were still in their early thirties. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: Widow of Gettysburg Jocelyn Green, 2013-04-24 For all who have suffered great loss of heart, home, health or family; true home and genuine lasting love can be found. When a horrific battle rips through Gettysburg, the farm of Union widow Liberty Holloway is disfigured into a Confederate field hospital, bringing her face to face with unspeakable suffering—and a Confederate scout who awakens her long-dormant heart. But when the scout doesn’t die, she discovers he isn’t who he claims to be. While Liberty’s future crumbles as her home is destroyed, the past comes rushing back to Bella, a former slave and Liberty’s hired help, when she finds herself surrounded by Southern soldiers, one of whom knows the secret that would place Liberty in danger if revealed. In the wake of shattered homes and bodies, Liberty and Bella struggle to pick up the pieces the battle has left behind. Will Liberty be defined by the tragedy in her life, or will she find a way to triumph over it? Inspired by first-person accounts, Widow of Gettysburg is second book in the Heroines Behind the Lines series. These books do not need to be read in succession. For more information about the series, visit www.heroinesbehindthelines.com. |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: "This Infernal War" William M. Standard, 2018 Nobody knows anything about it but them that has the trial -- I cramped a darkie and a mule -- Talk of war at home -- I am willing to be governed by your judgment -- This is no place for boys. they soon go to destruction -- Mown down like grass -- Good Lincoln times by gravy -- Epilogue -- Notable individuals in the Standards' correspondence -- Appendix |
| civil war love letters from soldiers: An Uncommon Soldier Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, 1995 Originally published: Pasadena, Md.: Minerva Center, 1994. |
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (2024) - oldshop.whitney.org
Letters (Expanded, Annotated) Various Soldiers,2016-11-19 Perhaps no army in history prior to the American Civil War left such a remarkable and voluminous collection of letters to home …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers - mathiasdahlgren.com
Unearthing Love: Exploring Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers The American Civil War, a brutal conflict that tore the nation apart, also produced a poignant legacy: thousands of love letters …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (Download Only)
Amidst bloody battles and political maneuvering, thousands of African Americans spent the Civil War trying to hold their families together. This moving book illuminates that struggle through...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (2024) - Keyhole
The letters appear to be from a Civil War soldier by the name of Rafe Collins. Rafe fought on the Confederate side; however, the letters are addressed to Ms. Hattie Townes, whose family …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers [PDF] - BreedBase
Adventure: Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers . This immersive experience, available for download in a PDF format ( Download in PDF: *), transports you to the heart of natural …
Part 1: Description, Research, Tips & Keywords
Civil War love letters offer a poignant and intimate glimpse into the lives of individuals caught in the tumultuous events of 1861-1865. These handwritten missives, brimming with emotion, …
Tells wife of pretty girl he saw, 48 - ir.ua.edu
"Dear Mother: Don't grieve about me. If I get killed, I'll only be dead." Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1990. Fort Pulaski, brandy, food, 1 ...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Copy
The letters appear to be from a Civil War soldier by the name of Rafe Collins. Rafe fought on the Confederate side; however, the letters are addressed to Ms. Hattie Townes, whose family …
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries - Essential Civil War Curriculum
This is the guide to Civil War Resources in Duke's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library contains a large collection of diaries and letters which are available to read at the …
During the American Civil War, soldiers had a lot of free time in ...
In their letters, they told their families of battles, life in camp, and the long marches in between. Now we use these primary documents to help us understand their experiences. Read the …
Final Letters From Fallen Warriors Family & Friends - Lesson Bank
Since the early days of the Revolutionary War, American soldiers have been writing letters that shared their fears, hopes for the future, and love with those who waited anxiously behind. …
Civil War Letters as Historical Sources
Civil War letters, diaries, and memoirs are most commonly used as primary sources for narratives of battles and campaigns or for works describing the social makeup of the armies. As is …
Writing during Wartime: Gender and Literacy in the American Civil War
documentary The Civil War (1990) was the dramatic reading of Sullivan Ballou's letter to his wife, Sarah, in which the Union officer anticipates his own death in the First Battle of Bull Run.
Callaway, Joshua K. The Civil War Letters of Joshua K. Callaway.
Braxton Bragg, 83 . Clothing, 84 . Van Dorn, 88 . Religion, 90 . Vicksburg, 91 . Bathing bad water, 91-92 . Drinking, water, 91-92 . Family, 92 . Sermons by Elliott ...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Full PDF
Abner C. Smith's letters tell the story of the Civil War in the voice on an ordinary Union soldier who tries with all his might to raise his children and support his wife through the written word …
LESSON 1: WHY FIGHT? SOLDIERS’ LETTERS - Lincoln Log Cabin …
T he letters of ordinary Civil War soldiers re-veal a great deal to historians trying to understand why people were willing to risk their lives fighting in a war. These letters oftentimes present …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Full PDF
The post war letters between Edward and Libbie chronicle their long courtship and show the development of their thoughts on love, family, religion, life in general and their dreams. Their …
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries - essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries. By Ian Delahanty, Springfield College. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate in history. About eight out of every ten Confederate soldiers and nine …
Christmas Letters from the Civil War Long before their were …
When Christmas came in December 1861, many soliders wrote home letters detailing how they spent the holiday away from their families. Reading excerpts from soldier's letters, Dave …
Download Free Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers
collection of Civil War letters, written by three of the Pierson brothers, offers riveting glimpses of almost every variety of experience faced by Confederate soldiers. Prolific letter writers, the …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (2024) - oldshop.whitney.org
Letters (Expanded, Annotated) Various Soldiers,2016-11-19 Perhaps no army in history prior to the American Civil War left such a remarkable and voluminous collection of letters to home …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers - mathiasdahlgren.com
Unearthing Love: Exploring Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers The American Civil War, a brutal conflict that tore the nation apart, also produced a poignant legacy: thousands of love letters …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (Download Only)
Amidst bloody battles and political maneuvering, thousands of African Americans spent the Civil War trying to hold their families together. This moving book illuminates that struggle through...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers (2024) - Keyhole
The letters appear to be from a Civil War soldier by the name of Rafe Collins. Rafe fought on the Confederate side; however, the letters are addressed to Ms. Hattie Townes, whose family …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers [PDF] - BreedBase
Adventure: Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers . This immersive experience, available for download in a PDF format ( Download in PDF: *), transports you to the heart of natural …
Part 1: Description, Research, Tips & Keywords
Civil War love letters offer a poignant and intimate glimpse into the lives of individuals caught in the tumultuous events of 1861-1865. These handwritten missives, brimming with emotion, …
Tells wife of pretty girl he saw, 48 - ir.ua.edu
"Dear Mother: Don't grieve about me. If I get killed, I'll only be dead." Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1990. Fort Pulaski, brandy, food, 1 ...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Copy
The letters appear to be from a Civil War soldier by the name of Rafe Collins. Rafe fought on the Confederate side; however, the letters are addressed to Ms. Hattie Townes, whose family …
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries - Essential Civil War Curriculum
This is the guide to Civil War Resources in Duke's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library contains a large collection of diaries and letters which are available to read at the …
During the American Civil War, soldiers had a lot of free time in ...
In their letters, they told their families of battles, life in camp, and the long marches in between. Now we use these primary documents to help us understand their experiences. Read the …
Final Letters From Fallen Warriors Family & Friends - Lesson Bank
Since the early days of the Revolutionary War, American soldiers have been writing letters that shared their fears, hopes for the future, and love with those who waited anxiously behind. …
Civil War Letters as Historical Sources
Civil War letters, diaries, and memoirs are most commonly used as primary sources for narratives of battles and campaigns or for works describing the social makeup of the armies. As is …
Writing during Wartime: Gender and Literacy in the American Civil War
documentary The Civil War (1990) was the dramatic reading of Sullivan Ballou's letter to his wife, Sarah, in which the Union officer anticipates his own death in the First Battle of Bull Run.
Callaway, Joshua K. The Civil War Letters of Joshua K. Callaway.
Braxton Bragg, 83 . Clothing, 84 . Van Dorn, 88 . Religion, 90 . Vicksburg, 91 . Bathing bad water, 91-92 . Drinking, water, 91-92 . Family, 92 . Sermons by Elliott ...
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Full PDF
Abner C. Smith's letters tell the story of the Civil War in the voice on an ordinary Union soldier who tries with all his might to raise his children and support his wife through the written word …
LESSON 1: WHY FIGHT? SOLDIERS’ LETTERS - Lincoln Log Cabin …
T he letters of ordinary Civil War soldiers re-veal a great deal to historians trying to understand why people were willing to risk their lives fighting in a war. These letters oftentimes present …
Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers Full PDF
The post war letters between Edward and Libbie chronicle their long courtship and show the development of their thoughts on love, family, religion, life in general and their dreams. Their …
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries - essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com
Soldiers’ Letters and Diaries. By Ian Delahanty, Springfield College. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate in history. About eight out of every ten Confederate soldiers and nine …
Christmas Letters from the Civil War Long before their were …
When Christmas came in December 1861, many soliders wrote home letters detailing how they spent the holiday away from their families. Reading excerpts from soldier's letters, Dave …
Download Free Civil War Love Letters From Soldiers
collection of Civil War letters, written by three of the Pierson brothers, offers riveting glimpses of almost every variety of experience faced by Confederate soldiers. Prolific letter writers, the …
