Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

[stannie1950]

To All Whom it May Concern,
I would like to portray a soldier writing home for the public this year, and have subsequently read some collections of letters and diaries; I need help, however, with certain issues. If anyone could answer the following questions, I would really appreciate it.

1. Is it correct that Spencerian Script was the typical handwriting taught in schools? Would men also have known how to print and have used it in their letters?
2. What is the proper form for addressing letters home and from home?
3. What grammatical structures did Civil War soldiers tend to use differently from our today?
4. With what sort of implement were letters home typically written?

Finally, if anyone knows of a good source of photographs of original letters and envelopes, I could really use that to defarb the stationary I currently have.

Thank You All for Your Time.

David Green

[gfchhdgf]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

I don't know the exact link but on the LOC site there is a plethora of original envelopes and if I recall correctly letters too. Its probably impossible to get your hands on now but in the CRRC 2 there is a good little article on letter writing as well.

[BobbyHughes]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Yet another source would be picking up any books of soldiers letters. One that I recommend, albeit of a Confederate Source is Letters to Amanda: The Civil War Letters of Marion Hill Fitzpatrick, Army of Northern Virginia Fitzpatrick was a member of Co K, 45th Georgia Infantry, and his letters to his wife in Crawford County, Geo are illuminating. A Great read.

[DOC1861]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Greetings David,

When I worked for the Illinois State Archives I had the honor of see letters everyday that where dated anywhere from 1796 to 1912. I thought it was a bonus when I decided to research penmanship styles, stationary, content, and signature flurishes to add to my impression. I hope I can answer some of your questions and will focas on our era. Spencer developed his form of penmanship in 1840 at his school, by 1850 is was beginning to be picked up in other schools as his students became teachers. In 1866 the Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship was published by Spencer's sons after he had died in 1864. The scripts used were as varied as the authors, both in cursive and printed forms. Spelling and punctuation at times were very interesting and one could have an indication as to the educational/social background of the author. Letters ranged from most words spelled phonically with no punctuation (one 3 page letter was a single sentence and with no use of captial letters) to letters written by authors with a higher education. As with any impression, one must take into concideration the economic/social status of the impression and write accordingly. The addressing of letters again varied like the authors. In general on the top right corner of the letter listed the date and location that the letter was written or with just the date or location. The letters were equally written in both ink or in pencil. The letter ink most commonly used was Iron Gall, we know it as brown. Blue was also used but was not as common. Stationary ranged from plain white sheets unlined, white lined with blue or green lines, plain light blue unlined, and light blue lined with darker blue lines. I even had one in light pink with red lines dated 1852. Most letters where in single sheet format in 8.5"/5.5". I hope I didn't muddy the waters for you.

[Pat.Lewis]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

David,

Glad to hear you're interested in writing some letters for yourself. I found this link a while ago when I was looking to do the same for my CS impression. It is an excellent overview of the Confederate postal system with some fantastic links to pictures of envelopes, postage, postmarks, etc. Hope it can be of some use.

http://personal.lig.bellsouth.net/p/a/parksvix/vixcwph.htm

[Horace]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

1. Spencerian script would be the basis of the style of handwriting, but doesn't need to be slavishly adhered to. Different teachers taught different variations of it, and different people wrote in their own versions of those versions. There are other penmanship schools that would reflect an older person's schooling, and I'm fuzzy on the facts. I've seen an at least one excellent thread here about that by people who are knowledgable about the subject.
The relatively small number of letters I've seen from the era were all written in script, rather than printed.
2. You would address letters to the person, their street address if they were a town dweller, or simply write the name of the town depending on the local postal knowledge, usuually write the county, then the state.
If you are a soldier who's sending the letter postage due, in the CS you would be required to write your name and the name of your unit on the envelope (which would be exceptional-return addresses generally weren't written on envelopes). My understanding is that US soldiers, after a point early in the war could simply write 'Soldier Letter' on the envelope.
The letter itself would have the date and location in the upper right hand corner, start with 'Dear...' or 'Esteemed..' etc. and have a somewhat formal opening sentence like 'I take pen(cil) in hand to write a few lines...'. Closing with the 'Your Obedient Servant...' line would be reserved for a formal letter. It would more likely be something like 'Your Friend...' or 'With Affection...'. I haven't seen anyone closing with 'Love...'
You can cut paper to the scale of these smaller envelopes at a Kinko's type place. There was also a practice of writing on a sheet of paper that was intended to be folded. So you would have a sheet of paper twice the size of the envelope, fold it in half, write within the folds and then put it in the envelope.
3. Grammatical structure would pretty much depend on your level of education. Some standard abbreviations were different, i.e. '& c.', 'Srg't.' '2'd & 3'd'...This is the stuff that's fun to hunt for.
4. John Tobey of the Columbia Rifles did a survey of letters written while on campaign versus in camp. He found that 92.5% of letters written on the march were in pencil, and that 91% written in camp were in ink.
Standard envelopes of the time measure 3 1/4" by 5 1/4". The nearest thing available at a chain store these day that I've found is is 3 1/2" by 6 1/2". I do have a letter written to my g-g-grandfather during the war in an envelope measuring 4" by 8", so variations are there.
I recently found all of the stuff you need for pen and ink in an art store in the 'calligraphy' section. I got a pen, 3 nibs and a bottle of ink for about $8.00 total.
These are just some thoughts from a fellow novice. There are others with more comprehensive understanding of the subject. I couldn't figure out how to paste it, but If you google 'Arago: People, Postage and the Post' it brings you to another good site about the subject.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Folks:

Think back on how old you were when you learned to write in your real life. What year was it, and who taught you? How old was that person? How did they write?

Michael Schaeffer will wander along soon and add his two cents to the topic, but in the meantime:

I've seen considerable changes in the style of writing, even in my lifetime, and I'm told that children are no longer taught penmanship in school. I remember long hours in elementary school practiting pages of re-writing the teacher's examples from the board. Apparently, that's no longer done, since in the future children won't need to have good handwriting -- they will be keyboarding everything. Don't get me started on that particular issue.

But my handwriting varies considerably from both of my parents' handwriting, and my mother's very distinctive style of handwriting is very similar to her two oldest brothers -- they were all taught by the same teacher in the 1940s. Their handwriting is clear and readable -- but it doesn't look much like what we think of as "the Palmer method" or standard handwriting.

Given the information that has been written above regarding the teaching of the Spencerian handwriting, it would seem that if you were over 20 at the time of the War, chances are much better that you'd be writing using Copperplate, or some variation of same, rather than Spencerian.

There is a yahoo group called "The Scrivener's Mess" for those who are working on their "regimental clerk" impression,as well as all those interested in Army paperwork. They also discuss in great detail stuff like types of paper, ink, pen nibs, etc.

Hope that's helpful,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Sleeping Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[1stMaine]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Comrades,

An excellent source for examples of soldier's letters, period civilian letters, and envelopes is ebay. Many and varied styles and examples are shown as they come up for sale. It's worth the time to do some searches there, as many sellers offer full or partial transcipts of the leters as a selling aid.

Respects,

[Drygoods]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

This may seem a bit off topic, but you might want to enlist another group to help you write letters, please let me explain. I started a letter writing project between a unit in Arizona and a historic civilian group in California. Since the Arizona unit historically originated in California and traveled East, the letters that they receive are in a period context works for interpretation at their events. On the other hand, the civilians enjoy receiving letters at each of their events, and often get quite upset and demanding when I do not produce these letters soon enough! (I am the acting postmaster.) Currently, I've got 5 civilians writing to 3 soldiers. The hardest part of this project is keeping this thing going because so many people have those 'getting out of the hobby sales.' The most interesting part of this project is that both sides have never met and so while the civilians talk about the hardships of home life, the soldiers talk about how rough it is to travel the country and the fighting done on the line. It makes for great reading and interpretation when these letters are shared.

[ohioyankee]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

I have been looking for examples of letters printed rather than in cursive but to no avail. Is our modern print the same as it was in the 1860's ?

[Pat.Lewis]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

I think the existance of just one modern writing style is highly debatable. I myself have gone through about three in the past decade as I have encountered new letter forms that seem easier, look neater, are more efficient, etc. Add the millions of individuals around the world, and I don't see anything resembling "our" modern print. But that is beside the point, I have yet to see anyone from mid-century actually print anything. My assumption is that if anyone did use manuscript printing, they were few and far between and/or did so infrequently.

Bottom line: printing ain't PEC by any stretch of the imagination. Besides, it's easy enough to pick up period handwriting from sitting down with a cheap calligraphy set and a few examples of letter forms. I taught myself working about an hour a night for a couple of weeks. Practice letters for a week or so, then move on to copying passages from books, magazines, etc. for a while, and finally try to transcribe or take notes on the 6 o'clock news to give you practice in furiously scribbling like a clerk at muster time. Before you know it, you'll only have to worry about reproducing postmarks and cancellations.

[C.R. Henderson]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Ms. Peebles,
I think that the pen pal idea is great. It would be very interesting to do that in conjunction with an event like Westville, Athens, or Perryville. The interpretation would be outstanding and it would help folks get into first person that much quicker- kind of like a pre-event primer.:D

[Drygoods]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Ms. Peebles,
I think that the pen pal idea is great. It would be very interesting to do that in conjunction with an event like Westville, Athens, or Perryville. The interpretation would be outstanding and it would help folks get into first person that much quicker- kind of like a pre-event primer.:D

Well, Sir, I would suggest that you, or your unit, enlist the help of some civilian group and be sure to give them a background of your unit, plus add to it the names of the fellows requesting letters, along with their ages. I did this specifically so that we didn't have 16 year old girls writing to 61 year old men. I wanted to make sure that in the letters, they each could have something that they could relate to, and not have the parents think it creepy that their children write to strangers &c. Within a period context though, I've had the civilians of the group really get inspired to do more, either with sending supplies, knitting, and holiday packages. I never did hear how the fellas felt about that idea, but I hope that they like the letters. It seems that this year, I've got more civilians than soldiers writing.:wink_smil

Speaking on my own behalf, it sure is great to read their mail at events. One young woman was so upset at hearing her soldier (pen-pal) had died that she cried for an hour (he went through the getting out of the hobby illness):cry_smile I know that some of those soldiers read this board, so I sure hope that they are willing to continue with the project, as I've got plenty of civilians already writing them letters!

[stannie1950]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Thank you all for your feedback. I have found it very useful, and plan on establishing a letter-system between the civilians and my unit this year. Hopefully this will be a good living history trick to educate the public without them knowing it. :wink_smil

[Ryan Halsey]

Re: Correct Civil War Soldier Letters

Thanks for posting. I too am starting to write letters this year. This should help me this year.