Antebellum and Civil War collection: Correspondence, 1856-1865, undated.

ArchivalResource

Antebellum and Civil War collection: Correspondence, 1856-1865, undated.

Antebellum and Civil War collection: Correspondence, 1856-1865, undated.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/310126877

The series includes correspondence, including letters and diaries of Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War, mostly during the Atlanta Campaign in the spring and summer of 1864. An exception is a letter written in 1856 from an Atlantan expressing fears of a slave revolt. Each entry lists the correspondent (when identified), their location (in italics) and to whom they are writing. Units for both Union and Confederate correspondents are sometimes identified; otherwise the correspondent is listed as either Union or Confederate. The letters are organized in chronological order. Notable correspondents include General Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, and Atlanta pioneer William Austin Leyden. Letters from Confederate soldiers from Georgia include subjects such as the formation and movements of military units, descriptions of camp life, a description of a Baptismal ceremony, a sympathy letter to family members of a fallen soldier, and a first-hand description of the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and the fall of Atlanta. Many of the letters from Georgia soldiers were written in combat theaters across the Southeast including Yorktown, Richmond, and Petersburg, Virginia, as well as Vicksburg, Mississippi. Also included in this series is correspondence from other Confederate and Union soldiers in camps throughout Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, which describes fighting near Dallas, Marietta, Kennesaw, Roswell, and Atlanta, as well as the latter stages of the conflict in Georgia. Correspondence from Union soldiers includes diaries and letters written in 1864-1865. Included are accounts from soldiers serving in infantry and cavalry units from Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut, and New York. The diaries of these soldiers consist of hundreds of entries, many only 3-4 lines, but some spanning multiple pages, describing camp life, soldier provisions, the landscape, Confederate fortifications surrounding Atlanta, the weather, health and ailments, caring for wounded soldiers, rumors of the movements of Confederate forces, battles and skirmishes, the death of General James B. McPherson in battle, the capture and occupation of Atlanta, and the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

42 documents

Atlanta History Center, Kenan Research Center / Cherokee Garden Library