Iowa Letters

Letters in this edition

• Final preserved letter, written near Goldsboro
  Mother — Word is the Rebs have nothing left. We expect to be paid off and sent home before the summer. I find I do not know what I will do when I am back. I have grown old in three years. But I am coming home, Mother. I am coming home.
• Christmas letter from Savannah
  Sarah — A Christmas to you and the girls. We marched in to Savannah six days ago and the city has surrendered. General Sherman has given the city to Mr. Lincoln as a present. The boys say the war is nearly done. I begin to hope it is true. I begin to dare to plan for after.
• Letter written from a Union hospital in Memphis
  Mother — The fever has broken. The surgeon says I will have my leg though it will not be as it was. I am alive and that is more than many of our boys can say after the works at Vicksburg. The Sisters here have been very kind.
• Letter written during the Atlanta Campaign
  Dear Sarah — We have been at it three weeks now. General Sherman pushes us hard and the Rebs do not give an inch easily. I lost Henry Coombs yesterday — he was always more brother to me than not. I cannot write more tonight. Kiss the girls for me.
• Letter from a soldier of the 16th Iowa near Vicksburg
  Mother — There is to be a great fight before long, that much is certain. The pickets have been firing across the bluff for three days. I am tired in a way I cannot describe to you but my health is good. If anything should happen to me, see that Jacob does not enlist. He is too small still and his lungs were never strong.
• Letter from Camp McClellan, Davenport, Iowa
  Dear Sarah — We arrived at Camp McClellan late on the eleventh after two days' march. The boys are in good spirits but rations are thin and the rain has not let up. The Colonel keeps us at drill from dawn till after supper. I think often of the farm. Tell Father the south field will need to be fallowed if I am not home by spring.