Mail

[Will Eichler]

I'm sitting at home writng a few letters for guys in one of my outfits for this summer and I had a thought. "How did Mail actually get shipped and distributed?" At most events, the 1st Sgt. magically appears with a handful of mail for "Mail call." Ok, does anyone know the true story. Did the military transit it's own mail? What was the route for a letter to get from a private out to home (say Michigan in my case)? Did he give it to his 1st Sergeant, or who? To whom did they turn it over to? Who would a Regimental Staff officer give it to?

It's an area that I know very little about and haven't seen noted in anything that I read.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Will

[tomarch]

Re: Mail

Will, for mail service for the C.S. Trans-mississippi, go to Google and look up "Absalom Grimes" Maj. Grimes was a mail-carrier for soldiers in the Trans-Mississippi, a river boat pilot and early friend of Sam Clemmens (Mark Twain). Good Hunting!

[Alamo Guard]

Re: Mail

In the book "The Life of Billy Yank", they refer to the chaplain picking up mail. Sometimes charging a penny a letter. Other chaplain appeared to do it free.

[dusty27]

Re: Mail

I know that with Jackson's troops in the Valley, mail was sent back via other soldiers that had returned home, either legally or illegally. Many references in the letters themselves and written recollections. This was also how money was sent home.

[John E. Tobey]

Re: Mail

Just a few points regarding Federal soldier mail...

Mail service was usually interupted when the troops were on campaign. I'll let an original soldier explain this further:

[Letter dated July 21, 1863] “When on the march we have no mail facilities for sending letters any more than to trust the letters to some persons we meet along the road & in this part of the country that is far from safe, as many of the people are sesesh, and of course would be apt to open the letters themselves, so you must be content to live in hopes & not look for letters but seldom.” [Bowen, “Dear Friends at Home: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Sergt. Charles T. Bowen" p. 299]

It was the same for receiving letters. Andrew Chesnut wrote during the same campaign, after going into camp near Hagerstown two weeks after Gettysburg, "I recieved your letter...and was glad to hear from home it was the first letter that I had from home since I left Centerville that is a bout three weeks we have been on the march ever since."

For someone to appear with a handful of mail "on campaign" would be magic indeed, at least for most campaigns. This isn't saying that it NEVER happened, but it certainly was uncommon.

Also: after July 1862, Congress decreed that soldiers could send letters without paying postage by writing "Soldier's Mail" on the top. The postage was then paid upon receipt by the addressee. For some reason, this was not often done -- most post-1862 soldier mail bears postage stamps.

John Tobey

[JACKSONVC]

Re: Mail

Pards,
In John Worsham's "One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry", Worsham states:"One thing the government did well, and that was the mail for the soldiers. In my brigade we had a man who was the mail carrier, and the government furnished him a horse for this purpose. Letters written by soldiers wre delivered at the regimental headqurters. Our carrier would come for them (and also take all that wre handed him by the soldiers), and then he would start for the nearest post office at some depot or village. There he delivered the mail. If he found any mail directed to the men of the command, he brought it to us at once. If there were none, he would go to the next place, and to the next, until he found it, after which he brough it to us. His arrival was a great event in camp. Because he had no regular hours for returning, some men were always on the lookout for him both day and night, and heralded his coming. On his arrival, men from each company (probably the First Sergeants) gathered at the regimental headquarters, got their company's mail, took it to the company's headquarters and looked it over, and called out the names of the men to whom it was addressed. It made no difference the hour, whether it was day or 1 or 2 o'clock at night. When a man's name was called for a letter, unless on duty he was generally on hand to get it in person.....In the begining on the war, postage was not required to be prepaid on a letter from soldiers in the field. The postage was collected on delivery of the mail. In directing a letter to soldiers, it was necessary to write name, company, regiment, brigade, division, and command. This was the rule in Jackson's command, and I suppose in the army generally."

However the footnote to this statement reads as follows:
confederate mail service was undependable in the war's first days and it grew worst as the struggle progressed. See Wiley, "The Life of Johnny Reb" pp 200-201. During the war worsham himself made strongly critical remarks about mail delivery. See his letters to his mother, Mar 25, 1862, and to his sister July 27, 1864.

As long as an army stayed relatively immobile, the mail would probably be frequent, however the minute they pulled up stakes and began the march, undoubtedly the delivery of mail degraded.

[crneilsen]

Re: Mail

To All,

One source I found on this topic was actually in everybody's old favorite "Hardtack and Coffee", by John Billings. In Chapter 11, he discusses special rations, boxes from home and sutlers. He makes reference to the fact that often boxes or items shipped through the post sytem were opened and checked for "contraband" (i.e., liquor or other undesirable materials in camp) He goes on to say that mail by the wagon-load went from the brigade HQ to the company HQ and was then distributed to the men at the company level. (He may only be making reference to "boxes and other large parcels") It should be noted that this was also during a period of extended stay in one area - like in winter camp, etc. And Billings was a soldier in the Army of the Potomac - the western armies may have had a very different expeience!

Bell Irvin Wiley writes in "The Life of Billy Yank", about mail when he quotes a Pvt. John Hare - "When the lieutenant came to the door and told ous that the male had come Every one of the boys jumped up to heare his name called out" (pg. 190 of my edition) Here we have a case of a lieutenant distributing mail.

Just some thoughts.

CR Neilsen

[KKS]

Re: Mail

I don't have the book at school with me to post a quote, but there is a section in "Corporal Si Klegg and his Pard" on camp mail delivery, including a description of the soldiers' scramble to write letters of reply to give to the rider who had brought the mail.

It is a fictionalized account of author Wilbur Hinman's service, but may be of some help.

Kira Sanscrainte