"Wanted: Correspondence"

[John Hartwell]

The fad began, apparently, in the winter of 1863, when the armies were still snug in their winter encampments. And, it seems to have been a largely Mid-Western phenomenon (at lest so far I've found no examples east of Ohio). Newspapers across the West began to run classified listings entitled: "WANTED: Correspondence." Appeals from lonely soldiers seeking to allay the boredom of camp life by inviting "young ladies of good qualities and good looks" to correspond with them "with a view towards mutual improvement, fun, or matrimony after the war."

 

[luinrina]

Do we know of stories that a marriage ever came out of such an add? Have letters survived?

 

[Union_Buff]

Thank you for posting this interesting thread John, and I am wondering too if any of these correspondence ads lead to a post-war marriage? I am sure some of them must have worked out.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

What a great thread- never heard these were a ' thing '. Bet there were relationships struck up- with so many ads odds are weddings followed somewhere. Did a thread on a couple who were unknown to each other, trooper ( I think ) knew her brother, wrote to her asking permission to correspond. He gives a lot of the same reasons in these ads- they married right after he was mustered out. Daughter published their letters after her parents died.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Ok, one of the men was Edgar Bradford, an Illinois regiment- someone of that name ( born in Virginia ) married ' May ', from Iowa. It's not genuine evidence but sounds hopeful. Couple I'm seeing lived in Colorado in 1880.

 

[John Hartwell]

Well, there were probably some happy outcomes. But by October we are also seeing news articles like this:

Other articles make reference to "the 'Wanted -- Correspondence' mania."

 

[John Hartwell]

The Louisville Democrat of August 18, 1864, includes the following warning:

To some degree such notices may have been simply attempts at discouraging romantically-inclined young girls from dangerous situations. Much of the actual correspondence was, I suspect, both innocent and sincere.