Letters to the editor

[tony_gunter]

When soldiers wrote letters to the editor of a newspaper, how did they refer to them?

Letters?
Correspondence?
Article?

How did soldiers choose the paper(s) with which they corresponded? How common was it for a soldier to correspond with a newspaper several states from their home, and what would be the purpose of, say, a Missouri soldier writing to a Cincinnati paper?

 

[John Hartwell]

The soldier himself would write a"letter." But, I expect that what it was called in the newspaper (letter, correspondence, communication, etc), would be up to the individual editor.

 

[Old Soldier]

"Soldiers' letters" depends a lot on how you define 'soldier'. Being an ex-ranker I see it as referring to GI Joe, Tommy, Fritz. To many, 'soldier' means anyone in uniform. Soldiers' letters, if they wrote any, were usually to those 'back home'. A few would be reported to local newspapers, but I doubt if the whole letter would be shown - let alone printed - just passed on by word of mouth. Some of the more influential local soldiers - the officers - may have had their letters home printed out but I suspect they would be extracts - well-edited. Local newspapers would rarely be seen in the field.

Soldiers generally do not write letters to newspapers, but higher officers would have done, usually staff officers - the guys who actually received and read those newspapers in the office or in the field. If they did write to a newspaper, it would be a critique, expressing a point of view or criticising the newspaper's point of view. Only they would be printed in full, the higher the rank and the most influential, the better. I doubt if The New York Times printed any letter from Pvt John Smith.

BTW - Any letter home would be very toned down in language and content and probably more to the point of 'I'm OK'. Soldiers rarely talked details about battles and casualties. Most descriptions of combat seem to take 10 years or more before they appear - usually as 'fiction' - all the gory details but no names of those directly involved. It still hurt.

 

[huskerblitz]

Did they? I was reading up on them last night and it seems like they had strict rules against carrying documents. Although, if you had documents wrapped up and disguised as a parcel, could they really stop you?

Also, apparently receipts for Adams Express are collectible and some of the examples online appear to be for express delivery of documents.

Yes, even on their website history they mention delivering soldier's packages and letters as well as documents. In another thread someone posted an advertisement from Harper's Weekly that also confirms this.

 

[tony_gunter]

Yes, even on their website history they mention delivering soldier's packages and letters as well as documents. In another thread someone posted an advertisement from Harper's Weekly that also confirms this.

Sounds like their express delivery relied on exclusive contracts with rail carriers. Since we are talking about Corinth to Cincinnati that would mean the letter would travel exclusively by rail except for the hop across the river at Cairo?

 

[huskerblitz]

Sounds like their express delivery relied on exclusive contracts with rail carriers. Since we are talking about Corinth to Cincinnati that would mean the letter would travel exclusively by rail except for the hop across the river at Cairo?

That would be my guess. The surgeon to the 22nd Kentucky makes several mentions to using Adams Express during the regiment's campaigning in Mississippi and Louisiana. Both he and Lt. Shanks frequently wrote items that would wind up in the Kentucky papers.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

In the three right hand columns, this paper shows two examples of this type of communication- a "letter" from J. H. ManDeVille, followed by what appears to be a report from Adjutant Brown on the actions of the local regiment. These must have been considered a precious source of direct information on loved ones.