As young men marched off to fight in the escalating Civil War in the spring of 1861, the women of Pennsylvania’s Coal Region began to make efforts to support their hometown units.

Among those who participated were the women of the Luzerne County community of Pittston. The 15th Pennsylvania Infantry at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg received a package of medical supplies from the “Ladies of Pittston” in the first weeks of May 1861.

Two officers within the unit sent letters of thanks to the women of Pittston, Pennsylvania to be published in the Pittston Gazette.

From the Pittston Gazette, May 16, 1861:

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Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, May 8th, 1861.

To the Ladies of Pittston:

Through Mr. P. A. A. Reeves of your Boro, I have the honor and great pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of the bandages and lint, prepared by you and sent in care of Mr. Reeves to the Pittston Artillerists, which have been placed in my care and charge as Surgeon of the 15th Regiment, to which the Artillerists have been assigned.

It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge that to the Ladies of Pittston belongs the honor of having sent the Volunteers the first articles of the kind which have been presented to this Regiment. In behalf of the Pittston Artillerists and in behalf of the Volunteers of this Regiment, I am requested to tender you their sincere and heartfelt gratitude and thanks for your very kind favor.

Yours Very Respectfully, 

DR. MEYLERT, Surgeon 15th Regiment.

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Camp Curtin, May 8th, 1861.

To the Ladies of Pittston:

Dear Friends—

A soldier’s gratitude is easily awakened. It fills his heart with joy when he is assured there is an interest awakened in the minds of “the friends he leaves behind him” for his welfare. Thus it was with us when we found that you dear ladies still thought of us, who have started out to protect “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

The unspoken sentiment of each one was, “God bless the Ladies of Pittston.” And now, Ladies, accept the gratitude of soldiers, (which is ever more felt than spoken): In God and our Country’s name we thank you, and hoping that you may so live as to gain an entrance to that happy land, where swelling floods of glory roll o’er crystal streets and flowing back break in glowing billows o’er the throne of God, we bid you good bye.

Yours forever,

THE PITTSTON ARTILLERY,

Capt. Solomon Sturmer.

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Read the previous letter from the Letters from War: 1861 series.

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This is part of an ongoing series called “Letters from War: 1861” that will share correspondence written on the front lines during the turbulent first year of the Civil War.

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