Soldiers' Letters

Soldiers wrote many letters during the war and we are lucky that so many of them have been preserved. When a historian reads those letters, he can get an idea of what the soldiers were like and what they thought of while they were away from home. Letter writing was the main form of communication with loved ones at home and letter writing helped to relieve boredom. Almost all soldiers begged for their parents, friends, wives and sweethearts to write back right away as there were few pleasures greater than receiving mail from home.Civil War soldiers missed many of the special things they took for granted while at home, especially home cooked food. Families packed boxes with a soldier's favorite food like pies and cakes that he could not get while in the army and it was a special day when such a package from home arrived in camp.

To write their letters home, soldiers purchased paper, envelopes, ink and pens from sutlers. Stationary makers printed many styles of patriotic stationary and envelopes with engravings of camp scenes or political humor and these were quite popular among soldiers.

Envelopes, also known as "covers", with elaborate printed patriotic scenes or political statements were some of the most popular to use. Some enterprising businessmen manufactured envelopes for specific regiments serving in the army, such this one to the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry, which lists all of the battles in which the regiment had participated during its service to 1864.

(Collection of Gettysburg NMP)

The Union Army had a post office near forts and camps, and a mail service that followed the armies for the men could purchase stamps and mail their letters. Later in the war, organizations such as the U.S. Christian Commission and U.S. Sanitary Commission gave out paper and envelopes to Union soldiers free of charge. In 1864, the U.S. Mail Service announced that Union soldiers could send their letters home for free as long as they wrote "Soldier's Letter" on the outside of the envelope. Confederate soldiers never had such a luxury. Shortages of paper, stamps, and even writing utensils in the South became acute as the war progressed and it was often left up to the soldiers to find writing paper, including stationary taken from Union prisoners.

Almost every soldier in service made an effort to write letters home to describe their experiences, give their opinions on local matters and politics, and to assure their families not to worry. But not all soldiers could write very well or spell words properly. Rural education in America was not like it is today and most Civil War soldiers only had an education up to the fourth grade level. Many young men from rural areas had never attended school and could neither read nor write so they asked comrades to write letters for them. Poor education led to many words being mispelled or sentences left incomplete. Soldiers sometimes spelled words as they heard them- "raison" for reason, "horspitle" for hospital, "rafel" for rifle. Here is a portion of a letter written by Francis Russell, a Union soldier from the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry, with some of these misspellings:

Sometimes soldiers described battles, but more often they wrote about their daily existence and desire to be at home. Confederate soldier John Sweet of the 9th Tennessee Infantry wrote home to his parents in November 1863 from siege lines overlooking Union troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee:

Soldiers in every war our nation has fought in have written home from the battle front. As you can see, soldiers wrote many letters throughout the Civil War, sometimes telling their friends and people at home information that the military wanted to be kept secret. It was soon after America's entry into World War I that soldiers' letters were censored by army officials who cut out parts of letters which may give away military secrets or, if the letters fell into the wrong hands, would provide pertinent information on troop locations. Censorship reached a new height during World War II. GI's could only write in generalities and not refer to their location or unit. Even the "XXXXX"'s for love and kisses would be cut out of the letter, as it might be mistaken for some sort of code! During the Vietnam conflict, soldier's letters were not as heavily censored and the soldiers wrote home about their experiences, their friends, and what they had seen.

A soldier writes home from France in 1944.
(Courtesy 2nd Infantry Div.)