Civil War Love Letters

This is a collection of letters written by different soldiers away fighting in the Civil War written between 1861 and 1864. A common theme is that they are all love letters. They provide evidence that war is not only a physical, but an emotional struggle. While some of the soldiers had an optimistic outlook on the war, others had a more pessimistic view. The soldiers with a positive view were just glad to write their families. Where as the negative soldiers were thinking it was their last letter. Normally, when you think of the Civil War you think of numbers, approximately 1 million deaths. With these letters you get a better understanding of their feelings towards the war. Nowadays do you think the soldiers have a more positive attitude about going away to war because our advances in the way we communicate? What are some of the modern ways of communications that soldiers have today?
letter 1 
 date - July 14, 1861
 sender - Sullivan Ballou
 letter context - this is from a man writing to his wife Sarah, he talks about how he thinks he'll die and to not mourn him but remember him and be happy with their boys. 

http://www.civil-war.net/pages/sullivan_ballou.asp 

letter 2 
 date - July 15th, 1864
 sender - O.D. Chester 
 letter context - This is a letter to his sister 

http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/A_Letter_Home_(Confederate) 

letter 3 
 date - May 10th 1863
 sender - J.C. Morris
 letter context - This is a love letter that was written from a soldier to his wife, Amanda. He's telling her what they've done and not to be worried if he doesn't write much because it's hard to send them off. 

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/jcmorris.html 

letter 4 
 date - July 25, 1864
 sender - William F. Testerman
 letter context - This is another love letter and it's a man writing to a women named Miss Jane Davis. 

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/testerman.html 

letter 5
 date - May 7th 1863
 sender - William Henry
 letter context - This is a 

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/ruse.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elizabeth Stewart Warner's letter to home (1856)

While reading Elizabeth's letter I learned that in the 19th-century west most of the people were not very educated, a few examples to prove this are "women","breakfuss", and "fowlow". I also learned that death is not a uncommon thing. Through out the letter she wold talk about on different occasions people dying and even the oxen would die on this trip. A specific example is one women she was with saw her boat sink and her husband drown with it. Another thing is that she talked about how cattle prices ranged from 65 to 80 dollars and had to pay 45 cents to live in the "meanest house you could think of human beings living in". They also couldn't afford water so would steal it from various places. They seemed to have to be very money conscious back then. I learned that life was very hard for people back then in the west during the westward expansion. A Pioneer Woman's Letter Home
Read more

Lincoln Movie Review

Rolling Stones Review:     "Though Lincoln is seen visiting Union general Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris) on the front, battle scenes are scarce. The film begins with soldiers dying in the muck, a sobering sight that gives way to a dialogue between Lincoln and two black Union soldiers who quote his Gettysburg Address back at him and wonder how the proposition that "all men are created equal" will play out in the real world. The sequence is a setup, artificial, perhaps, but a way for us to get our bearings. Even before Reconstruction, Lincoln had to face political skeptics."    - Peter Travers Paraphrase of Review:       Lincoln visits Union general Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris) in one of the rare battle scenes in the movie which then leads to Lincoln two black Union soldiers conversing with him. They started quoting the Gettysburg Address questioning why he wrote "all men are created equal" and wondering how it will actually be in reality...
Read more

Smoke Signals

In the movie Smoke Signals  the father, Arnold, struggles with something that is very prevalent in the Native American community which is alcoholism. It is a stereotype that Native Americans are alcoholics and because of this his son, Victor, never drinks because of how he saw his father turned out and be so violent. In the movie you see that the Natives on the reservation struggle with poverty and violence which are two things that are affecting very reservation. The characters find power by singing and story telling which is something that is a big part of their culture. 
Read more