Civil War Love Letters Ginger Ainsworth and Whitney Novick

During the civil war they did not have phones, pagers, or compters, their lives were much differnt from ours today. The people living durning the time of the civil war used letters to communicate with families and loved ones that they missed. Today our mailboxes are usually filled with bills, adverismetns, holiday cards, and the occcasional update from Grandma, while back then they were one of the main sources of comminication the other one being talking face to face. Letters were a big part in the soilders life when they were in war or staying at camps, becasue the letters were the only way that the soilders had contact to family and loved ones outside of the warzone. The letters that were sent durning the war were usually sad, some soilders would write about how all there friends were dying around them. Could you imagine seeing a friend die right next to you? The letters also contained mariage arrangments, the life style in the war, poems, but in everyl etter there was a missed loved one and another longing to be home. Fighting the civil war so hard, but when a soilder recieved a letter from home it made them forger for one moment about the fighting and killing that the war brought.

In one letter a mom wrote to her son:

"Christmas is just five weeks off. Oh how I do wish you could all be at home on that day, and no more war. No more army to go to anymore. In God’s own good time it will be brought to an end I know, I hope we shall be enabled to wait this time with faith and patience. That we shall be successful I have not a doubt, but I dread the prolonged trials and hardships of our men, but we may have cause to acknowledge that these many trials were blessings in disguise. I pray we may all so see and feel that all my dear children may be brought back in safety and in honour."

During the civil war most slaves were illiterate, but some could and wrote letters to their loved ones fighting in the war.

Some of the slang that solidiers used was hard for us to understand because it's so out of date.

In Soliders little free time they would write home.

Mail men in the 1800s risked their lives during war time to deliver letters to and from warzones.

Sometimes it took letters months to reach the solidiers or homes.

Women often wrote about how the children were and how life at home was going. Although they had to be careful not to write anything too personal in case the letter was opened before delivered.

Most letters were written on parchment paper

Letters were usually written with fountain pens or pencils

Letters were a way for families to keep in touch without being near each other. They kept loved ones close and updated on what was happening.