Getting A Letter Through The Lines

[East Tennessee Roots]

How difficult would it have been for someone to send a letter from Wilkes County, NC to the Colonel of the Union 4th Tennessee Cavalry in 1863-64? The author of this letter was most likely a pre-teen (8 in the 1860 census). He states the soldier in question (Private Benjamin Howard Isbell) is "my relation". Ben's line of the Isbell family originated in Wilkes County but had migrated to McMinn County in East Tennessee several years before the Civil War. I'm not very good at transcribing the old writing but I took a stab at it. Private Isbell committed suicide on Sept 8, 1864. Conflicting Union Army reports say his brother and Captain of Company F, John W. Isbell killed himself the same day, other reports state John died of disease in Alabama.

"Dear Sir,

My relation, B.H.Isbell, who is in Company F of your Reg, (4th East Tennessee Cavalry), as I am informed on account of a bad case of fever lost his mind, and I write to ask you if it would not be well to have him paroled so that he might be taken home and cared for by his relations. I make this application with the hope that he may be restored to his proper mind and fear that if he is kept in the hospital he may never recover.

Your Obedient Servant,

Thomas H. Calloway"

 

[Rhea Cole]

I am not familiar with procedures in North Carolina. However, I assume that the mail was handled in similar ways no matter the location.

During the "siege" of Chattanooga there was a designated postal exchange location. Both Union & CSA stamps could be purchased. Personal letters were often read by intelligence officers, but they were allowed to go on to the addressee. The postal exchange was located where civilians passed through the lines.

Union stamps were good for whatever the distance might be. For reasons that are elusive, CSA postage rates depended on the distance the letter had to travel. The cost of postage could be onerous for common soldiers from Texas, e.g. There was considerable resentment. It was just one more gratuitous official harm done to CSA families that is hard to understand.

Captain Charles Eastman, in charge of the Lookout Mountain signal station, wrote to his sisters in Nashville that something was about to happen. He had gone to mail them a letter & found that all post going northward was stopped. He didn't know it, but would have been alarmed to discover that only official telegraphic traffic was allowed as well. That was a typical security measure before an advance was ordered.

 

[Steven Rockwell]

I just Googled "Post Service During Civil War" and this was the first hit: https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2012/pr12_civil-war-mail-history.pdf

A few others: https://uspsblog.com/the-effect-of-usps-on-the-civil-war-usps/
https://www.rfrajola.com/Knowles1/Knowles1.pdf
There's pretty good article on the subject of Confederate stamps and the CSA postal system on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_the_Confederate_States
This woman's website has a number of articles and links about Confederate stamps and their postal system: https://www.trishkaufmann.com

The above mostly deal with Confederate stamps and their postal system, but from there it isn't all that far to other postal topics once you start following footnotes and bibliographies.

The Wikipedia article on John H. Reagan (Confederate Postmaster General) has several book and article titles in the Further Reading section that might be worth looking into. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Reagan

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

I am not familiar with procedures in North Carolina. However, I assume that the mail was handled in similar ways no matter the location.

During the "siege" of Chattanooga there was a designated postal exchange location. Both Union & CSA stamps could be purchased. Personal letters were often read by intelligence officers, but they were allowed to go on to the addressee. The postal exchange was located where civilians passed through the lines.

Union stamps were good for whatever the distance might be. For reasons that are elusive, CSA postage rates depended on the distance the letter had to travel. The cost of postage could be onerous for common soldiers from Texas, e.g. There was considerable resentment. It was just one more gratuitous official harm done to CSA families that is hard to understand.

Captain Charles Eastman, in charge of the Lookout Mountain signal station, wrote to his sisters in Nashville that something was about to happen. He had gone to mail them a letter & found that all post going northward was stopped. He didn't know it, but would have been alarmed to discover that only official telegraphic traffic was allowed as well. That was a typical security measure before an advance was ordered.

The Union Army had probably occupied Knoxville. Would the letter have gone there and then forwarded to Colonel Thornburogh?

 

[Gary Morgan]

I know that prisoners at Andersonville were required to put both Confederate and Federal postage stamps on letters home, which is likely why there are so few letters from prisoners. Some tried pasting a coin where the postage would have gone on the envelope, but I don't know how successful that was. In 12 years of research, I think I've only come across three letters from prisoners at Andersonville that reached home and survived.

 

[Rhea Cole]

The Union Army had probably occupied Knoxville. Would the letter have gone there and then forwarded to Colonel Thornburogh?

In my admittedly limited experience, unofficial correspondence was handed by routine USPS delivery.

I don't know what happened to mail in the CSA system, exactly. Anecdotally, letters were routinely routed through Canton or someplace far, far away. Otherwise it is hard to account for the epical transit times recorded in journals & letters.

 

[LisaJ]

What a sad story. I feel sorrowful for the the Isbell family.