Civil war letter

For my blog post I thought it would be interesting to examine the exchange of letters, rather than just a personal diary.  People will continue to write in their personal journals, but hand-written letters are something of the past.  I spent a large amount of time browsing for detailed and descriptive letters, and eventually I decided to focus on letters from a Civil War soldier, John P. Dull, to his wife Giney.  As we mentioned in class, personal stories give a different perspective on history than what we read in textbooks.  John’s letters to his wife highlight the day-to-day activities of being a soldier.  This information is very useful and makes me think about the Civil War in a very different way.  Instead of knowing facts about the war, personal stories let us understand how people lived on a daily basis and gives us insight into their emotional states.  In John’s first few letters he describes what life at camp is like and how poor the living situation is.  Since these are letters to his wife we know he has no filter on his true feelings, which is evident in his first letter when he states “this kind of life dos not sute me”.  The everyday struggle is something that stands out in John’s letters; in many of his notes he explains how much food is available and where the camp is.  These two things are major priorities for a wartime soldier. 

Also, I find it fascinating that without these letters, John’s wife, Giney, would have had no idea of what her husband was going through.  Most likely her only source of information came from these letters.  Today, soldiers still communicate with letters, but there is a lot more information and accessibility to their lives.  This fact highlights how important the letters are for John and his wife.  Another aspect of the letters I find interesting is the amount of time John spends on religion and praying to god.  I did not expect to see this, but clearly it makes sense.  As John spends more time away from home he prays more in his letters- it is evident that his homesickness increases.

Stories add a different and often unseen side to history; in the case of war letters we are able to gain access into the emotions and thought-processes of soldiers trying to balance it all. 

The Valley of Shadow Letters

http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/personalpapers/documents/augusta/p2dullletters.html

--Joe