top of page
Search

A Story from Letters

Around twenty years ago, a cousin who lived in Southern Illinois wrote me, very excited at what she found at the estate sale of an elderly aunt. She bought a box of junk items, hoping to find some family memento, and at the bottom of the box was a folder containing letters John McCartney, our great grandfather, wrote while he was Captain of Company D in the 56th Illinois Infantry serving in Georgia and South Carolina. I asked for copies. Word spread through a family newsletter and a few months later, Bernice Morton, who lived in Washington state, said she had letters written to him by his wife.

Since I have a degree in American History, I offered to write explanations for puzzling references in some of the letters, but as I came to know John F. and Elizabeth and learned more about the joys and sorrows of their lives, I thought the letters should be shared more widely.


Many books of Civil War letters describing the soldier’s military experiences have been published. The wife’s letters are more unusual and provide a woman’s perspective of life during the war that we don’t hear often. Many years after the war, the soldier’s sister, who assisted his wife while her brother was serving with the army, wrote a memoir of that time which provided many details on their lives. I recognized that together they told a story I thought would engage readers today. With that goal, I began Hardtack and Heartbreak: A Family in the Civil War.

32 views1 comment

Recent Posts

See All

The letters of James Griffin of South Carolina appear in A Gentleman and an Officer, by Judith McArthur and Orville Vernon Burton published by Oxford University Press in 1996. The book is valuable for

The key phrase that tore the country apart in 1860 is part of Amendment V in the Constitution: “…nor shall any person …be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law” The Supreme

The Civil war began in 1861—one hundred and sixty years ago. After so many years, does that history still matter? It was the most costly war, in terms of lives lost, in American history. From a popul

bottom of page