Parker family. Parker family papers, 1858-1865.
Title:
Parker family papers, 1858-1865.
Chiefly Civil War letters of Eli W. and William E. Parker to their father, Emanuel Parker, discussing hardships endured by typical soldiers while fighting in campaigns in Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Also includes antebellum letter, 27 Dec. 1858, from Daniel M. Martin, Alabama, recalling a visit to his birthplace in South Carolina and providing information on Mrs. Parker's relatives in the Martin and Raney families of Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. Civil War letters written during 1862 from various locations in Virginia (Farmville, Richmond, "Camp Starvation," and the Medical Director's Office), inform family on the homefront of movements and developments, officers encountered, including assisting Gen. Joseph Johnston from the field after a skirmish; and 22 June 1862, reporting election of officers with James Doby as Captain and news of men from Camden, S.C. Letters discuss camp life, complain of shortages, note reaction to battle, "I think it is the best part of a soldier's life," and another in which Eli Parker boasts of writing on "Yankee paper and with a Yankee pencil taken from a Yankee knapsack with my own hands"; topics discussed include complaints of inadequate care of sick and wounded, poor mail service, inflation and exhorbitant prices for food and whiskey, and along with repeated requests for food and clothes from home. Letters from 1863 include criticism of the Confederate Congress, suggest adoption of an income tax, and display bitterness over problems of inflation and speculation, "when the war is over the soldier who has sacrificed time, property, health and even life will have this debt to pay, and the speculator and extortioner will walk the streets... board at the Hotel and pay nothing"; other letters express concern over health of Eli Parker's horse, "we [are] on their back 8 hours out of 24." Letter, Oct. 1863, suggests that war should be pressed for the next two months to influece the U.S. Congress, "though we have no friends in it, Lincoln has enemies... and a few victories in the field will increase those enemies," and stress importance of defending and holding Charleston, S.C.; letter, 9 Nov. 1863, from Sweetwater, Tennessee, William Parker comments on the strong Union sentiments of the residents, whom he reckons to be "as bad as they are in Pennsylvania. You can't get any thing from them unless you have greenbacks or gold or silver. They are willing to go back in the union..." Letters through 1864 discuss hard fighting, changes in command, and troop movements; Eli share rumors and news of a failed peace commission at Fort Monroe, between Confederate officials and Abraham Lincoln and William Henry Seward: "Old Abe has been more honest with us than I thought he would be - he tells us plain that we must either be a free and Independent people or Yankee slaves." Letter, 25 Jan. 1865, Salkehatchie, S.C., from William Parker, expresses hope that Union troops would not move too swiftly, "we are in a large swamp here and if the Yanks come we can play [Francis] Marion on them very well."
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74 items.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32164405 View
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