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Civil War: Some Aspects of the "Human Side"
Primary Documents
There are a ton of Civil War letters available. Here is an excerpt of one from http://scholar.library.miami.edu/shedd/letters/63jan15.html
This letter was written by Calvin Shedd, who was a carpenter from New Hampshire . He served in the Union Army from 1862-1863. He was stationed in Florida when he wrote this letter to his wife. He shares his feelings about "Negroes" and mentions that another man in his unit has died. A number of his fellow soldiers had already died from small pox. He mentions that there are barely enough men left to make up a squad.
St. Augustine Jan 15th, 1863
Dear Wife
It is cool with high wind, there was heavy showers last night; it seems cooler than it would it having been so warm for a week previous. we are watching the Rebels a little closer, & send out a Co every day to look after them. the reason of their being this side of the river I suppose to be to keep the Negroes from coming within our lines, as they know that we shall make soldiers of them; it is reported that they are hanging some of them to intimidate the rest "Alas! for the poor slave" they have to bear everything it is a great wonder to me that they do not rebel; they would if they were not the most quiet inoffensive race on earth, there is no mistake but they were intended for slaves providing any other race were wicked enough to enslave them, It is hard work to fill out a letter with nothing to write. My health is bad I am almost discouraged sometimes; I am on duty but hardly able to be about; One of our men has died of consumption, & three others discharged and gone home within a week; our Co is called Squad A. we are so few.
Excerpts from Carrie Berry Diary from http://www.americancivilwar.com/women/carrie_berry.html
August 1, 1864-January 4, 1865
The following passages were taken from the Diary of Carrie Berry, a ten-year-old resident of Atlanta , Aug. 1, 1864 -Jan. 4, 1865. They provide a first hand account of war through the eyes of a child. There is much more where this came from.
General Johnston fell back across the river on July 19th, 1864, and up to this time we have had but few quiet days. We can hear the canons and muskets very plane, but the shells we dread. One has busted under the dining room which frightened us very much. One passed through the smoke-house and a piece hit the top of the house and fell through but we were at Auntie Markham's, so none of us were hurt. We stay very close in the cellar when they are shelling.
Aug. 1. Monday. It was raining this morning and we thought we would not have any shelling today so I nurst Sister while Mama would do a little work, but before night we had to run to the cellar.
Aug. 2. Tuesday. We have not been shelled much today, but the muskets have been going all day. I have done but little today but nurse Sister. She has not been well today.
Aug. 3. Wednesday. this was my birthday. I was ten years old, But I did not have a cake times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing. I hope by my next birthday we will have peace in our land so that I can have a nice dinner.
Aug. 4. Thurs. The shells have ben flying all day and we have stayed in the cellar. Mama put me on some stockings this morning and I will try to finish them before school commences.
Aug. 5. Friday. I knit all the morning. In the evening we had to run to Auntie's and get in the cellar. We did not feel safe in our cellar, they fell so thick and fast.
Aug. 6. Sat. We have ben in the cellar all day. Cousin Henry Beatty came this evening and brought some Yankee coffee for me to grind for him. some he had captured yesterday in a skirmish.
Aug. 7. Sun. We have had a quiet day it all most seems like Sunday of old. Papa and I went to Trinity Church . Mr. Haygood preached. It is the first time I have been to Church in a month.
Aug. 8. Mon. I got up early this morning and cleaned up the house for Mama. I nursed Sister while Mama got dinner. We had Cousin Eddie Stow to take dinner with us to day. I did not knit much to day. I went up to Auntie's in the afternoon. We have not had many shells to day.
Aug. 9. Tues. We have had to stay in the cellar all day the shells have ben falling so thick around the house. Two have fallen in the garden, but none of us were hurt. Cousin Henry Beatty came in a and wanted us to move, he thought that we were in danger, but we will try it a little longer.
Aug. 10. Wed. We have had but few shells to day. It has ben raining nearly all day and we had to stay in the house very close.
Aug. 11. Thurs. Mama has ben very buisy to day and I have ben trying to help her all I could. We had to go in the cellar often out of the shells. How I wish the federals would quit shelling us so that we could get our and get some fresh air.
Aug. 12. Fri. Mary came home yesterday and we have not had so much wirk to do so I have ben knitting on my stocking. We had a present to day of a bag of nice pears fro our friend Mrs. Green. We enjoyed them very much. We do not get any nice fruit since the army has been here.
Aug. 13. Sat. We have had a very quiet day to day. We have all ben very buisy trying to work some while we could get out in safety. We fear that we will have shells to night. We can hear muskets so plane.
Aug. 14. Sun. Sure enough we had shells in abundance last night. We averaged one every moment during the night. We expected every one would come through and hurt some of us but to our joy nothing on the lot was hurt. They have ben throwing them at us all day to day but they have not ben dangerous. Papa has ben at work all day making the cellar safe. Now we feel like we could stay at home in safety. I dislike to stay in the cellar so close but our soldiers have to stay in ditches.
1870 comments of former slave Thomas Long, who was a private in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=78
We can remember, when we fust enlisted, it was hardly safe for we to pass by de camps to Beaufort and back, lest we went in a mob and carried side arms. But we whipped down all dat- - not by going into de white camps for whip um; we didn't tote our bayonets for whip um; but we lived it down by our naturally manhood; and now de white sojers take us by de hand and say Broder Sojer. Dats what dis regiment did for de Epiopian race.
If we hadn't become sojers, all might have gone back as it was before; our freedom might have slipped through de two houses of Congress and President Linkum's four years might have passed by and notin' been done for us. But now tings can neber go back, because we have showed our energy and our courage and our naturally manhood.
Letter from James Booker from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/civilwar/booker
Here is a letter by a confederate soldier about the battle of Gettysburg . James Booker enlisted with his twin brother John, who was later died as a result of wounds inflicted at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff. The letters of James and John Booker offer the views of two ordinary confederate soldiers.
July the 11, 1863
My Dear Cousin
I write you a few lines this evening in answer to yours of the 23 of June which I received today and you may be assured that it afforded me great pleasure to hear from you all once more. It had been more than a month since I had heard from home. This leaves myself and brother both well. And I much hope it may reach you in due time and find you all enjoying the best of health and all other blessings. We have had a very hard time since I wrote to you before both marching and fighting to do. We went into Pennsylvania and stayed for some time and had a hard [Page 2] Battle Near Gettysburg. It commenced on the 1 day of July and continued until the night of the 3 day, and then both armies fell back with great loss. We went in the 3 day and got nearly all of our Division killed & wounded I hope there was not another Division in Lee's army that suffered the loss that Pickett's2 did. General Pickett's lost every Brigadier General that he carried in the battle: two killed and one taken prisoner. Nearly all the officers in our brigade were killed & wounded. We lost our Colonel one of the best men in service. He was a good officer and he was good to his men; they all loved him. Our Lieutenant Colonel lost one of his arms at Malvern Hill and got the other one seriously wounded in the Battle the other day. 3 [Page 3] I guess you will see a list of the killed and wounded in the papers which will be more correct than I could give you. There was 35 men went in the battle in our company and there was only 15 of them came out fit for duty Myself & John come through safely. Are we not lucky; ah we have been so far. There was a ball passed through my sleeve though it did not hurt my arm. Me and Jon came very near being taken prisoner on the day of the battle; [ I told him] when I saw that we were nearly surrounded I told Jon that we would run and try to get away from them and we made our escape by doing so, while several of our boys that was with us let the Yankees take them. [Page 4] We have taken a great many of the Yankees prisoners. Our Division brought some five or six thousand of them to this place. I heard that the Yankee's papers stated that they lost forty thousand killed at the battle at Gettysburg . I hear of a small battle nearly every day and I am expecting another big battle every day. Though I don't think they will put our Division in. Our brigade is on guard in this town, the citizens of the town seem to be in favor of the Yankees mostly. I must close. Give my love to all the family and share the same for you and write to me soon.
to your loving Cousin
Jimmie Booker
Letter from Sullivan Ballou from http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/23.htm
Major Sullivan Ballou of the Second Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers had managed to become a lawyer although his family had been poor. He had two sons with his wife Sarah. Ballou, who supported Abraham Lincoln volunteered in the spring of 1861. Ballou wrote this quite moving and beautiful letter to his wife on July 14, 1861. He died at the Battle of Bull Run.
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days -- perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.
Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure -- and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing -- perfectly willing -- to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.
But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows -- when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children -- is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?
I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.
I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles I have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me -- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours -- always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.
Sullivan
Source: Brown University Alumni Quarterly (Nov. 1990): 38-42.
More letters are available at
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