A Particular Civil War Letter

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Earlier I was talking about the new collection online of Civil War letters called Private Voices.

And I’ve had such a great time digging through there, looking at all these letters from uneducated Civil War soldiers.

One of the themes that comes up again and again and again in all these letters is the theme of wistfulness.

Just, I can’t wait to see you. I can’t wait to get back home. It’s just such a longing. It’s really moving to read these.

And I wanted to read part of a letter from a soldier from North Carolina. It’s not from that collection, but it’s from the Civil War. And it was written at a camp in Virginia.

Dear wife and children, by the kind and tender mercies of Almighty God, I am once more permitted to drop you a few more lines to let you all know that I am not well yet, but I am a heap better than I have been.

I am tolerable hearty, not forgetting to hope that these few may reach you safely and find you all enjoying good health. I have no news, important news, to write to you, only I want to see you all very bad, so bad.

I cannot tell by pen and ink how I do want to see you all, though I hope that the time will come that we will all meet once more.

I want you to write me and let me know all the best news you can find out in the good old state of N.C. Tell me whether there is any prospect of peace there or not.

So I don’t know as I have anything more to write that is worth your attention, so I’ll close by saying that I hope you will excuse bad writing and spelling and everything therein that you might find amidst my hurried letter.

So I remain your affectionate husband until death.

And that was written by Francis Webster to his wife, Sarah.

And Francis Webster was my great-great-grandfather.

How about that?

How about that? That’s amazing.

I was waiting for the punchline and there it was.

There’s the punchline.

Great-great-grandfather. That’s astonishing.

Yeah, it really is.

I can remember that framed letter on our mantle for years and years.

But you hear the longing there.

It’s like, I don’t have any news, but I’m reaching out anyway.

Yeah, and of course the linguistic features are interesting.

Keep is an intensifier and tolerable.

Yeah, and hardy.

You see the term hardy again and again in all these letters in the Private Voices database.

Yeah, we wouldn’t use those three words that way today.

No, no.

But isn’t it beautiful?

It is beautiful.

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