I Gave My Love a

18thVirginia

Major
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
I thought it would be interesting to read some of the words that Civil War soldiers actually wrote home to wives and beloveds.


Letter,19 March 1863, from Charles W. Hill, serving with the 5th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in New Bern, N.C., to his wife Martha Hill in West Medway, Mass. -

I want to see you very much but I think it the

wisest way is just feel that it can not be now and

wait patiently for the time to come. Let us each

cheerfully do the work before us whatever it may

be and the time will not seem long I love to feel as I always have been

able to that I can rely on your love and regard what ever others

may think or say. It makes a man feel

strong to know that he is all the world to

somebody But I must stop goodnight Charles


See more at: http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/index.php/2013/03/19/19-march-1863-2/#sthash.aNI3s87D.dpuf
 
Valentine card from Robert King, a Confederate soldier, to his wife Louisa. He was killed in 1862.
card-robert-king-1862-confederate.jpg
 
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Letter, dated 25 September 1862, from J. Smith DuShane (Pat), a sergeant in Company K of the 100th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, to his ‘beloved'; The letter describes how he was wounded at 2nd Bull Run on 29 Aug. 1862. -


My Dearest May,

God bless you dearest for your kind and encouraging letter, it came like a sunbeam to brighten my pathway. while reading it I forgot my wounds and pain and in thought I was again with my my little curly headed pet again. do you know darling that thoughts of the happy hours spent with you are the kindliest ones that come to cheer me in my hour of loneliness, why is this? what wierd enchantment is this with-which you surrounded me that scarce do my thoughts wander to my loved ere they wander to my little teaze. but I suppose that it is one of your mischiefous pranks so I’ll just grin and bear it.


See more at: http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/index.php/2012/09/25/25-september-1862/#sthash.AnpFmtRE.dpuf

J. Smith Dushane survived the war and lived to 1922. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=116441137&ref=acom
 
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Nathaniel Henry Rhodes Dawson was a Selma, Ala., lawyer and politician, Confederate officer in the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, and United States commissioner of education. Elodie Todd was the sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Dawson and Todd exchanged letters almost daily. They later married. -


Charlottesville, Aug 25, 1861

"Not feeling strong enough to attend church this morning, I have read the services, with a portion of scripture, from your bible, in the leaves of which are carefully preserved your two notes of 21 and 24th April last. In the note of 24, accompanying the gift, you use these consoling words “I send you a bible and when you see it and read it, think of me as bending over mine and praying for your safety” The bible is never used without the remembrance of these words being in my mind, and I feel satisfied, that your prayers have had an influence in my favor. May they always ascend in my behalf. In the note of the 21, the first in which you write to me, as your accepted suitor, after speaking of the unsolved enigma of my love for you, you tell me, “I have nothing to give you save a heart overflowing with love, happiness undeserved, entirely your own, under any and all circumstances, unalterable by time or change.”

See more at: http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/index.php/2011/08/25/25-august-1861/#sthash.cwuQ3I2p.dpuf

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Letter, 9 November 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. -


Did you feel bad when our Black Creek girls were rallying you of me or dont you care a fig for such things, I have had to take it too; for my sister in one of her letters not long ago spoke of that “Little love affair” of mine, how she found out our secret I dont know nor do I care, I had just as leave the whole world would Know that I love so good a girl as Maggie as not. I have never written to but one person of you and that is a cousin living in Yates Co I have told her all about you and she has sent her love to you I know you will accept it and give yours in return. Poor girl she had her lover killed in the late battle at Bull run his name was Palding and he was a Lieutenant. But I must close as it is time for dress parade so good night a long kiss

From your own

Steve


- See more at: http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/civilwar/i...n-tippet-andrews-letter/#sthash.c1CqWjCi.dpuf
 
Camp near Lanjer, Ark.

May 10th 1863.


I must close for fear I do not get to send my letter off. Write offten I will get them some time. I will write every chance, do not be uneasy when you do not get letters, for when we are scouting around as we have been it is impossible to write or to send them off if we did write. Give my love to the old Lady and all the friends. My love and a thousand kisses to my own sweet Amanda and our little boys. How my heart yearns for thou that are so near and dear to me. Goodbye my own sweet wife, for the present. Direct to Little Rock as ---.


As ever your devoted and loving Husband, J.C. Morris.


Letter written by J. C. Morris in camp near Lanjer, Arkansas, on May 10, 1863, to his wife Amanda . Morris was in the 21st Texas Cavalry, Company F. Ms1992-013.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/jcmorris.html


http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/jcmorris.html
 
Brandy Station,

Sunday night, Nov. 1 [1863]


My dear Mollie

I rcd a letter today from a very handsome lady to play cupid. Although not accompanied by her likeness yet her image was so indelibly impressed upon my mind that the likeness itself could not recall the features more vividly than they are impressed. I first met her in a village in Western Va when I was about 17 years old and she 8. I afterwards saw her frequently and occasionally was in her company, and nonwithstanding the disparity of our ages, I became so favorably impressed with her fair face and gentle manners that I frequently said to myself that I wished she was older or I younger.



Letter from Harvey Black in Brandy Station, Virginia. Black, descended from the founding family of Blacksburg, Virginia, served as a surgeon to the Army of Northern Virginia. In this letter to his wife Mary (whom he affectionately nicknamed Mollie) he recounts their courtship and expresses the great love he has for her. Ms1974-003 Box 1:5-1:39.

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/black.html
 
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Gallotin, Tenn.July 25, 1864.

Dear Miss,

I again take the opportunity of Droping you a few lines in answer to your kind letters which I received a few days ago one bearing date June"23" the other June the "24"it was a plesure to me to have the honor to recieve a letter from as charming a young girl as the one whos name was asscirbed at the bottom of each of them I was glad to hear that you was well but I was more glad to hear you express your mind as fully as what you did this note leaves me well and I truly hope that this will find you in good health I can't say anthing to you by letter more than what you have heard from my letters before + Jane I hope the time will soon come when I can get to see you again I can write many things to you but if I could see you I could tell you more in one minute than I can rite in aweek The letters that you wrote to me has proved verry satisfactory to meif you will stand up to what you told me in your letters I will be satisfied which I have no reasons to Doubt but what you will but if you was to fail it would allmost break my heart for you are the girl that Iam Depending upon and if it was not for you I would not be riting by mycandle to night as you wrote to me that many miles seperated us in person if my heart was like yours we would be united in heart you kneed not to Dout Though we are fare apart at present my heart is with you everymoment for I often think of you when you are alseep when Travailing the lonesom roads in middle Tenn The thought of your sweet smiles is all the company I have I trust that you are cinsere in what you have wrote to me.Your sparkling blue eys and rosey red cheeks has gaind my whole efectionsI hope for the time to come when we shall meet again then if you are in the notion that I am we can pass off the time in plesure My time has come for sleep and I must soon close I want you to rite to me as soon as you can for I will be glad to hear from you any time.Direct your letters as before and dont forget your best friend so I will end my few lines but mylove to you has no Endremember me as ever your love and friend. Excusebad riting.


William F. Testerman to Miss Jane Davis

Letter from William F. Testerman , on Remembrance stationery, to Miss Jane Davis . Testerman was a first lieutenant in Company C of the 8thTennessee Cavalry. He wrote the letter from Gallatin, Tennesee. Ms1989-099.

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/cwlove/testerman.html
 
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http://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2015/02/13/love-war/

On May 16, 1863, at the age of 19, Albert Chalker was mustered into the Confederate Army at Callahan under Captain Robert Harrison in Company K of the Second Florida Cavalry. He returned to Clay County and married Martha Ann Bardin in December 1865. After the war, Mattie's father gave the couple this house, where they lived the rest of their lives.


chalker_home.jpg


“I am sitting here alone thinking how hapy I might be if I was with my dear Mattie. Yes, if I was with you this evening I would be hapy. I did not know what it was to love, or how much I loved you untill now. I will quit writeing in this tone for I fear I am getting two sentimental, and you will think I am crazy.”

Albert Chalker to Martha Bardin, May 8, 1864. This is the earliest letter in the Chalker Collection held by the Archives (Collection M72-11).

Fondly love my heart is beating
With affection warm and true to thee;
And timely I would send this greeting
Where I fain would wish to be.

chalker_poem.png



Excerpt of Albert Chalker’s letter to Martha Bardin, November 20, 1864 (Collection M72-11, State Archives of Florida).
 
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These just all take my breath away 18th, thanks so very much! What a beautifully presented Valentine's Day for all of us, gosh- could have been yesterday, so clearly do we hear their voices and see their stories pass before us on the war's stage. Gives me chills- definite tears, I don't care if it's 150 years ago.

We're all not here for very long, you know? These men and their women, gosh, made the most of it by way of seeking to leave each to the other the deepest connection humankind can mine- maybe it isn't so awful thinking they had to pack up what little they had and make an exit if one considers they each discovered ' it '.

This war is all of these things, when we come here to discover more of what encompasses The American Civil War. Perhaps this is' just' a thread to commemorate Valentine's Day, I think it commemorates the hundreds of thousands of lives who made up all those teeny, pale little dots we see when we look at some photo of one of our armies, ranks of faces marching past the camera. What an important thread, thank you!
 
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