Author Archives: Anna Kephart

27 February 1863: “Dear Master and Mistress, I will send you a few lines to inform you I am not well but I still get along building stockades.”

Posted on 27 Feb ’13 by

Item description: Letter dated 27 February 1863 from a slave, Thomas, in Mount Shell, Tenn., to his master, J. M. Oaty, asking him to get a substitute for him in the building of a stockade. Item citation: From folder 17 … Continue reading →

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24 December 1862: “This is Christmas eve! Oh what a different mode of spending it this is from what I have been in the habbit of doing!”

Posted on 24 Dec ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 24 December 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. Stephen Tippet Andrews enlisted in the 85th New York Infantry Regiment on 26 August 1861. He helped organize Company F, and was mustered … Continue reading →

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4 November 1862: “He is a perfect skeleton, and could not walk up stairs, but is anxious to get home and would have started today, but it is threatening rain, and Mother thought he had better not go.”

Posted on 4 Nov ’12 by

Item description: Entry, 4 November 1862, from the diary of Sarah Lois Wadley. More about Sarah Lois Wadley: Sarah Lois Wadley was born in 1844 in New Hampshire, the daughter of railroad superintendent William Morrill Wadley (1813-1882) and Rebecca Barnard Everingham … Continue reading →

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3 November 1862: “the nights are colder here on the border of the Dismal Swamp than they are at the north…”

Posted on 3 Nov ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 3 November 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. Stephen Tippet Andrews enlisted in the 85th New York Infantry Regiment on 26 August 1861. He helped organize Company F, and was mustered … Continue reading →

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28 October 1862: “They are building the brick kiln now, and I hope the chimneys will be finished before we have any more such cold weather.”

Posted on 28 Oct ’12 by

Item description: Entry, 15 October 1862, from the diary of Sarah Lois Wadley. More about Sarah Lois Wadley: Sarah Lois Wadley was born in 1844 in New Hampshire, the daughter of railroad superintendent William Morrill Wadley (1813-1882) and Rebecca Barnard Everingham … Continue reading →

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17 October 1862: “I, who always tryed to shirk everything in name of work, had to hatch up something to do, so I hit upon the plan of making a set of chessmen, I have whittled out quite a number out of Black Walnut…”

Posted on 17 Oct ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 17 October 1862, from William H. Broughton to his father. More about William H. Broughton: William H. Broughton mustered into the Union Army on 4 August 1862 and was later made captain of Company D, 16th Maine … Continue reading →

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15 October 1862: “Oh! how many, many such widows this war will make, nay, has already made…”

Posted on 15 Oct ’12 by

Item description: Entry, 15 October 1862, from the diary of Sarah Lois Wadley. More about Sarah Lois Wadley: Sarah Lois Wadley was born in 1844 in New Hampshire, the daughter of railroad superintendent William Morrill Wadley (1813-1882) and Rebecca Barnard … Continue reading →

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12 October 1862: “what white people you meet give you a wide berth for fear of contaminating themselves by touching a yankee…”

Posted on 12 Oct ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 12 October 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. In this letter, Andrews describes his journey from Newport News to Suffolk, Va., commenting on the condition of the cities of Norfolk and … Continue reading →

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18 September 1862: “and we hear that the Yankees are dying by hundreds in New Orleans, this last is an awful thing to rejoice over, and yet such the fate of a bloody war and such are the feelings which it engenders, even in the merciful heart of a woman.”

Posted on 18 Sep ’12 by

Item description: Entry, dated 18 September 1862, from the diary of Sarah Lois Wadley. Item citation: From the Sarah Lois Wadley Papers, #1258, Southern Historical Collection,Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Item transcription: Wednesday Sep, 18th– I have time … Continue reading →

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14 September 1862: “Today there were three large steamers loaded with released prisoners came down the James – and a ragged looking set they were too – but they were happy to once more get their liberty…”

Posted on 14 Sep ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 14 September 1862, from Union soldier Stephen Tippet Andrews to his beloved, Margaret (Maggie) Little. Stephen Tippet Andrews enlisted in the 85th New York Infantry Regiment on 26 August 1861. He helped organize Company F, and was mustered … Continue reading →

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