Historical Letters

A coworker gave me two very cool letters today (they weren't for me specifically--I was just the last person to get to see them, and she was like "Eh, I have more copies, do whatever with those"). The first was written by a Confederate soldier (possibly related to her, but I could be mistaken) to his mother in 1864. The second was written by the captain of the USS Helena to his officers and crew (two of whom were my coworker's uncles) after Pearl Harbor.

Did a little Google-Fu, and found both letters online. The Civil War letter can be found here and the Helena letter is here.

That's awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Wonderful. I love things like this. It really gives an insight into the minds of people who went through such atrocities. I found the letter from the young Confederate soldier to his mother particularly moving. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I was very interested in the Confederate soldier letter. I read the Elsie books as a child, which is a series about a young woman growing up in the South and her adulthood coincides with the Civil War. It uses what I thought was extravagant language and was over the top in Christianity but after reading the Confederate soldier letter, it is the same language so I guess the books are actually accurate. Very cool to find out.