lelliott19
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....deep felt protestations of affection may this day be written by the soldier boys, to their fair enamoreds, far away, but they will not be upon fancy tinselled paper, with cupids, billing doves and garlands of flowers pictured all around and upon the margins, but upon plain, course paper "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn" will be inscribed - coming from the heart, and much more likely to go to the heart, than the sparkling effervescence of poetic fancies, so common in this class of epistles...
Melvin Dwinell was a born-and-bred New Englander; a Yankee turned rebel; a journalist turned soldier; a philosopher and a fighter. A native of Washington County, Vermont, born 9 July 1825, Dwinell graduated from the University of Vermont and moved South to seek a teaching position. By 1855, he purchased the Rome Courier, a small-town newspaper in Rome, Georgia, and served as its owner/editor.
When the war broke out, Dwinell helped to organize the Rome Light Guards which became Company A, 8th Georgia Infantry. He was elected Lieutenant and, although his regiment suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of First Manassas, Dwinell escaped unharmed. Afterwards, he wrote his family in Vermont: It would be as easy for Abe Lincoln to reduce the White Mountains to the level of the ocean as to conquer these states and then it would do him quite as much good when accomplished.
As one of few scholars in the 8th Georgia, Dwinell sent regular correspondence back to the Rome Courier - over 200 letters - until he was wounded in the left arm at Gettysburg. His correspondence kept the people of Rome informed on the movements and condition of the regiment. Dwinell was fond of injecting fiery rhetoric whenever the opportunity arose. After returning to duty from his Gettysburg wound, Dwinell was soon elected to the State Legislature and submitted his resignation October 22, 1863 at Chattanooga, TN. Here is his take on Valentines Day 1862:
CAMP SAM JONES, NEAR CENTREVILLE VA.
February 14, 1862
DEAR COURIER: This is Valentine's Day, but precious few tricks of love are likely to be played off, either by or on the soldiers, in this division of the army. It is not improbable that some, perhaps many, deep felt protestations of affection may this day be written by the soldier boys, to their fair enamoreds, far away, but they will not be upon fancy tinselled paper, with cupids, billing doves and garlands of flowers pictured all around and upon the margins, but upon plain, course paper "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn" will be inscribed - coming from the heart, and much more likely to go to the heart, than the sparkling effervescence of poetic fancies, so common in this class of epistles.
The hardships, privations and dangers of a campaign, some how, have a tendency to make men earnest minded and practical, and they come to despise the frivolities of the "weak, piping times of peace." Some -- and it is to be feared that this class will include a number of the youths -- the buds of hope and promise of the land -- will be by indulgence in the peculiar vices of camp life, not improved, nor yet, probably much worsted in their character and habits; for if they are disposed to dissipation, their opportunities would have been far greater for indulgence, at home than in the army. But others -- all those who maintain strict habits of mental and moral purity and physical abstemiousness will come out from this fiery ordeal purified and strengthened, and with greatly enhanced abilities for usefulness in the world. War is not an unmitigated evil; if it accomplishes no other good, it at least makes despicable the almost universal worship of Mammon, awakening higher aspirations and developing some of the noblest virtues of humanity. <end of excerpt; entire article below>
Rome Tri-Weekly Courier. (Rome, Ga.), February 27, 1862, page 2.
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