Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Letters of Union and Confederate Soldiers, Accession #10694, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased by the Library from John L. Heflin, Jr., of Brentwood, TEnnessee, on July 17, 1986.

Scope and Content

This is a collection of nine Civil War Letters, 1861-1865, seven by Union soldiers and two by Confederate soldiers. Several have patriotic letterheads of flags, cannon, and stanzas from songs.

In a letter of June 10, 1862, Jo Baker, a recently discharged soldier who has returned to his civilian business and is prospering mentions that his former unit had participated in the occupation of Winchester, Virginia (March 12, 1862). In an August 11, 1862 letter from William Townshend, stationed at Camp Millington, Baltimore, Maryland, and a member of Company H., 128th Regiment, New York State Volunteers, brief mention is made of Jeb Stuart's Chambersburg Raid of October 10-12, 1862. A copy of a map depicting the raid's route with a summary of its effects is attached to his letter. As a separate item, a letter of prose and poetry by an unidentified Union soldier is also included. In a letter of August 14, 1862, George D. Mathie (?) comments on the duty of enlisting to cursh the rebellion and end slavery and his plans to join a Michigan Infantry regiment.

Of particular interest are three letters, each written by one of three brothers, Arthur, Stephen, and Elbridge Libby, to their sister, Elizabeth, in Windham, Maine, from camps in Virginia and South Carolina. Arthur's letter of January 4, 1863, contains his impressions of army and camp life while stationed at White Oak Church, Virginia, as a member of Company B, Fourth Maine Infantry Regiment (Second Brigade, First Division, Third Army Corps, Army of the Potomac). Stephen and Elbridge Libby were stationed at Hilton Head, South Carolina, as members of Company H, Ninth Maine (District of Hilton Head, South Carolina, Tenth Corps, Department of The South). Their letters, February 28 and April 13, mention: standing guard duty over blacks' houses to prevent other soldiers from "downing" them; picket duty; news of family and friends; the weather, and of an attack on the city of Charleston by a Union fleet (which had occurred on April 17, 1863). In a postscript to the latter, George Nelson refers to mosquitoes and black women.

Two letters written by Confederate soliders are present in this collection. On July 22, 1861, Henry T. Coalter writes to his sister of his plans to join the cavalry in either (Wade) Hampton's or (Henry A.) Wise's Legion. (In The Appomattox Roster, a Henry T. Coalter us listed as an adjutant in the Fifty-third Virginia Regiment among the other parolees of the Army of Northern Virginia.) William J. Stone, a prisoner of war confined at Elmira (Prison), New York, on February 5, 1865, thanks E. G. Booth for the loan of two and a half dollars and promises to repay it as soon as possible. He concludes the letter by complaining of the severity of New York winters as compared to those in Virginia.