Your database will be quite valuable to researchers.
- James McPherson, author, Battle Cry of Freedom
Oliver Willcox Norton Letters
Norton first served in the Eighty-third Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment during the first half of the war. He enlisted at Springfield, August 28, 1861 and was wounded at Gaines' Mill, Virginia, on June 27, 1862. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Eight United States Colored Troops on November 10, 1863. Perhaps most importantly, Norton was a member of Colonel Strong Vincent's brigade (83rd Pennsylvania, 16th Michigan, 44th New York and the 20th Maine) that defended and held Little Round Top during the second day at Gettysburg. The following letters, from 1861 to 1863, are taken from Norton's "Army Letters, 1861-1865: Being Extracts from Private Letters to Relatives."
BATTLE OF SHILOH - THE SECOND DAY'S FIGHTING
Our attack yesterday was so sudden and successful, that the enemy found it impossible to remove his quartermaster and commissary stores, or even to save the baggage of the men. The temptation thus presented was too great for our troops to resist. Sunday night large numbers of them, supposing there would be no more fighting, set to work to gather up such spoils as the Federal encampment contained. There were arms, overcoats, caps, shoes, coffee, sugar, provisions, trunks, blankets, liquors, private letters, and numberless other things which the enemy had been compelled to abandon.
A Nurse's View of Battle: Bull Run, First Manassas
Sarah Emma Edmonds was a Civil War nurse, soldier (disguised as Frank Thompson), and spy. In this excerpt from her memoir, she recounts her experiences at the Battle of Bull Run (also known as First Manassas), July 21, 1861, and the events leading up to it and her exploits after the battle, returning to Washington, DC. Available is an extract is from Chapter II and III (pp. 29-54) from Edmonds' memoir published in 1864: Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields. Which can be downloaded in its complete form (PDF) via this site.
Why Married Men Fought in the Civil War
This is a recorded lecture from June 30, 1997 at the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. McPherson shortly after the publication of his book, For Cause and Comrades, Why Men Fought In The Civil War, which is a comprehensive analysis drawing upon more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides of the conflict. Written by the most literate soldiers in history and uncensored by military authorities, these letters and diaries are especially revealing as the soldiers tell their own stories.
Transcribed letter from Peter S. Tubbs to his sister, Sarah Jane Merrell
Wisconsin Private Peter Tubbs, of Co. I, 29th Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, writes home to Neosho from Ft. Gaines, Dauphine Island, Alabama on February 10th, 1865.
Unknown Correspondent report
(4 pages) published in the Wisconsin Daily State Journal on December 30, 1862.
How to cite this website:
Soldier's Name to Recipient, date of letter.
Accessed from http://www.soldierstudies.org/LETTER URL HERE
