Browse Items (38 total)

Where Home used to be,
Apr. 12th 1865

Your precious letter, My dear Janie, was received night before last, and the pleasure it afforded me, and indeed the whole family, I leave for you to imagine, for it baffles words to express my thankfulness…

Fayetteville, N.C., July 31st, 1865.

My Dear General:

It would be impossible to give you an adequate idea of the destruction of property in this good old town. It may not be an average instance; but it is one the force of whose truth we feel…

Discussions between governor Zeb Vance, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis on the impact that desertion made on the Confederate effort during the Civil War. This article points out that popular support for the Confederacy was never "robust" in the…

Sherman's movements through South and North Carolina were bold, imaginative strokes, masterfully executed. One historian has rightly characterized the Carolinas campaign as "a triumph of physical endurance and mechanical skill on the part of the army…

Curiously, historians have tended to understate the importance of slavery within southern consciousness during the war. In part, this may be because in postbellum decades many southerners themselves disavowed slavery as a major cause of the…

Laurel HillRichmond Co., N.C.March 8, 1865There is little of interest today, we have moved fifteen miles through a fine country, well cultivated, and affording plenty of forage. It has rained all day, the roads would have been good but for the rain;…

Columbia, S.C.February 17, 1865 This day has been the most eventful one to us of the campaign, and one which the historian of South Carolina cannot forget. This morning Columbia was a beautiful little city, tonight it is a “Sea of…

As I made my way to the fireplace my attention was attracted to one of the officers who sat in the corner with a map open on his knee. From the pictures I had from time to time seen of him I knew at once that this was General Sherman. I determined…

January 7, 1865 . . . . To obtain a mouthful of food we have been obliged to cook in what was formerly our drawing room, and I have to rise every morning by candle light before the dawn of day, that we may have it before the enemy arrives to take it…

The line which divides South from North Carolina was passed by the army this morning. It was not in our imagination alone that we could at once see the difference between the two states. The soil is not superior to that near Cheraw, but the farmers…