Civil War Love Letters--"Dear Hattie..."

I chose to focus my attention on Civil War-era love letters for this week's assignment. In particular, I chose a signature-less letter sent by a "lieutenant in Uncle Samuel's service" to a woman named Hattie. He placed an advertisement for himself in a paper and Hattie sent a response. The letter I chose is essentially his flirtatious (by mid-19th century standards) response to Hattie's acknowledgement of his ad. 

What makes letters such as these so invaluable has to do with what they reveal about the social structures in place during the periods in which they were written (and, of course, the attitudes of the authors towards the significant events that were occurring at the time). For me, the most amusing aspect of this letter has to do with the way he opens it. He addresses the woman who responded to his ad as "Hattie." Of course they haven't ever actually met and as such, it is entirely inappropriate for him to begin his response with a greeting that includes her nickname. This is an obvious flirtation, but he is concerned about possibly putting Ms. Hattie off, so he immediately included what could essentially be taken as an apology for the "affectionate familiarity" that is implied with his greeting.

Particularly amusing was one of the author's statements in response to Hattie's complaints about boarding school. He firmly believes that "hundreds of girls die annually from the pernicious effects of boarding school training." Perhaps it's the stern expressions of daguerrotype subjects captured during the period...for whatever reason, I don't picture Civil War-era soldiers as having had decent senses of humor. I remain convinced, however, that the unknown author of this letter--"Sense-of-Humor-Having-Soldier A"--is simply an anomaly. I do wonder what became of his correspondence with Hattie...