It is by a black member of the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, a black regiment.
His letter is a very personal letter too, in that he is quite forthcoming with his wife about how much he misses home and how torn he feels between his desire to be home and protect his family and the need to fight this war.Īnd then the third letter is written in February of 1864. He's also writing about the Emancipation Proclamation and the fears that it has stirred up amongst Confederate civilians at home. And he is writing at a moment when militarily, the Confederacy is enjoying more success but Confederate civilians are living with the uncertainties of having a war fought in their own backyard. The second letter is written the following month, November of 1862, but it is by a white Confederate soldier, prosperous farmer John White to his wife. He fought for the Union Army, he was a farmer from Illinois and he is writing to his brother-in-law, another family member, about the state of the war and particularly about Emancipation.
The first letter, first chronologically, was a letter written in October of 1862 by Jasper Barney, a private in an Illinois regiment.
