Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Civil War Letters


Maybe you found your Civil War ancestor.  Perhaps you have his military record or pension papers from Ancestry or Fold3 websites.  Did he or anyone in his regiment write home?  The letters might contain accounts of life in camp, marches and battles.  They might describe every day experiences such as shelter, clothing, food and general morale.  Were your Civil War ancestor's letters saved and submitted to an archive?  One way to find out is to Google "Civil War Letters".  The results are many.  Some repositories include but are not limited to Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute, Civil War Archive, Civil War.net.  You can also search Civil War Archive for regimental histories.  Civil War books that contain collections of civil war letters or regimental histories can be found at Civil War Mall or Camp Pope.  One book in particular that relates to our family is Duty Honor and Country.  It has transcripts of 119 letters written by Captain William P. Black of the 37th Illinois Infantry.