This entry comes for the University of Virginia's Valley of the Shadow Project. It is an excerpt from a letter dated October 4, 1861 written by Henry H. Dedrick, a private in the 52nd Virginia Infantry, to his wife who was holding down the fort back at the home front in Rockingham County, Virginia.
Thousands of soldiers' letters sent home must have said similar things, but it is touching none the less, and reminds us that the war affected just about everyone.
. . . . Dear Wife I have no money to send to you and I don't know when I will get any and if you want any you must try to sell some rye if you can spare it, and if you can't spare it you must try and sell one of the calves and get what you can. You must try and do the best you can while I am absent from you, but I hope and trust that I will return again safe and sound. And if I should not return no more I hope that we will meet in heaven and there to meet to part no more for ever and ever. I want you all to pray for me that I may get there and I will do all I can to meet you all there. I thank god that he has made it so plain that I can just see how I am placed . . .
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| Unidentified Confederate Soldier from the Library of Congress Collection |
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