Letters from War: 1861 brings together firsthand accounts from soldiers of Pennsylvania’s Coal Region during the opening year of the Civil War. Drawn from letters published in local newspapers in communities throughout the anthracite coal fields, these writings were read by families and neighbors hungry for news as the nation entered its most violent conflict.
These letters capture the voices of young men at a turning point in American history. They reveal the early patriotism and urgency of 1861, as volunteers rushed to defend the Union, but also hint at the beginnings of disillusionment with army life – the realities of camp, uncertainty, and the first signs that the war would not be short or simple.
As primary sources, these accounts offer a direct window into the past. They show how soldiers understood the meaning of the Civil War, how communities on the home front followed their progress, and how quickly optimism could give way to the harder truths of war.
Together, these letters help us understand what it felt like to live through one of the most turbulent moments in United States history in the words of those who experienced it firsthand.
Letters will be added here as we publish them
“He goes warmed by a spirit of true patriotism.”
In April 1861, a 19-year-old printer from Pittston, PA put down his tools and marched off to war.
“We have enlisted our lives and honors in the most noble cause…”
As volunteers poured into Camp Curtin, a Schuylkill County printer-turned-soldier captured the surge of patriotism at the very start of the Civil War
“It is almost impossible to form a word, on account of the noise and confusion caused by about 800 men around me…”
“If you could but see our outfit, methinks that you would not want to be a soldier.”
Sergeant Charles Cyphers described the long hours, rough conditions, and early realities of army life just miles from the Mason-Dixon line.
“Our country needs the aid of every young man, in this, its hour of need.”
Writing from Harrisburg, PA in April 1861, a 19-year-old Scottish immigrant tried to explain why he had volunteered for service in the Civil War – framing the conflict as both a duty and a test of loyalty to his adopted country.
“The President… visited our Regimental quarters on Monday last…”
The coal miners of the Ringgold Infantry had been in Washington less than a week – sleeping on bare floors, waiting on uniforms, and short on food in the Civil War’s early weeks.
On a frigid morning in May 1861, Sergeant Charles Cyphers stepped out of his tent at Camp Slifer near Chambersburg and found five inches of fresh snow on the ground.
He picked up his pen and wrote home and what he captured was a vivid snapshot of soldiers waiting and trying to stay warm.
“In God and our Country’s name we thank you…”
When the women of Pittston sent bandages and lint to their soldiers at Camp Curtin in May 1861, two officers wrote back to say thank you.
Their letters reveal the bond between the home front and the front lines in the war’s early months.
“We want a chance to give the rebels some cold lead from Yankee muskets.”
A young student from Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA traded his classroom for an army camp near Chambersburg in the spring of 1861.
“I never was better contented in my life.”
This letter from an Irish immigrant in the 8th Pennsylvania reveals how the soldiers were eating in the camps near Chambersburg – and tells us a bit about the working class Irish in the Coal Region.
“We are becoming ‘hardened’ to camp life and military discipline, while we are anxiously awaiting orders to march toward ‘Dixie’s land.’
The latest letter from Charles Cyphers and the 8th Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, June 1, 1861, a series of events took place on the western outskirts of Chambersburg that would reverberate for years afterwards and betrayed the prejudice of many Coal Region soldiers toward African Americans.
“I saw the spot where Ellsworth fell, still stained with his blood…”
A Carbondale soldier stood where Elmer Ellsworth was shot dead at the Marshall House in 1861 – then fought Confederate batteries on the Potomac River days later.
“I shudder when I think of the condition our country has been in for the last three months…”
In a letter to the Carbondale Advance, Captain Alfred Dart described looting relics from the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia – site of the death of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth.
“A large army is collecting at this point, and you may expect to hear of a battle soon…”
Soldiers were everywhere Charles Cypher looked, and he told his editor to expect news of a battle soon – provided no secessionist puts a bullet through him first.
“It really was a curiosity to see so many troops cross a river without the assistance of a bridge or a boat…”
In a letter to the “Miners’ Journal,” Private James K. Helms of the 6th Pennsylvania describes the scenes as the US Army crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport, MD in June 1861.
“We loaded and fired as fast as we could…”
Writing from Williamsport, MD in July 1861, Private William Ferris of Pittston, PA became the first soldier in this series to report from an actual battlefield as the news from the front was only getting more serious.
“I suppose you have been worried from not hearing from me so long…”
George Shafer was 17-years-old and had just survived his first Civil War battle when he sat down to write his mother in Carbondale, PA.
“I have but a short time to write… We are here at last on this ever memorable day all alive and pretty well as far as my command is concerned…”
The commanding officer of Company K, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry reported that the holiday had opened with a firefight across the Potomac River.
“I expected to get a pop every minute, but did not receive a scratch…”
Sergeant Francis Woodhouse wrote home to Pittston from Martinsburg, Virginia on July 6, 1861 describing his experience in battle at Hoke’s Run just four days earlier.
“The loss of the enemy is not known…”
Writing his sixth letter to the editors of the Pittston Gazette from Martinsburg, Virginia on July 7, 1861, Cyphers reported on the Battle of Hoke’s Run and its aftermath.
“I am now writing in the same spot where 24 hours since the officers in the army of the rebels were inditing their epistles to their wives, and lady-loves…”
A Luzerne County volunteer sat down on July 16, 1861 in a Confederate officer’s recently vacated quarters at Bunker Hill, Virginia and wrote home to a woman in Wilkes-Barre.
“This is the strongest secession hole I have met with since I left Carbondale…”
Alfred Dart composed his letter from the Jefferson County courthouse where abolitionist John Brown had been sentenced to death less than two years earlier.
“The blood of our murdered brothers calls out loudly for vengeance…”
A soldier identified only as “F.W.,” served in the 3rd Michigan Volunteer Infantry and sent a letter home to his mother in Pittston describing the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861.
“Much of this was perhaps owing to some mismanagement of the paymasters…”
In the days after the US Army’s disaster at Bull Run, the three-months men came home. Martin J. Byrne watched it unfold from Camp Curtin in the state capital.
“In taking care of the families of volunteers our citizens no doubt will do their full share…”
Company A, 28th Pennsylvania largely came from Hazleton and was fitted out for service by coal operator Ario Pardee, Sr., who managed collieries in and around Hazleton.
“Military discipline is exceedingly strict here…”
The young man from Carbondale experienced a city changed by the Civil War. All around him, soldiers marched and drilled and mounted patrols monitored the movement of soldiers and civilians alike.
Martin J. Byrne guards the Chain Bridge above Washington
“We are all eager for a battle with the enemy…”
From his artillery battery’s encampment just north of Washington, DC, Lieutenant Martin J. Byrne wrote another letter home to be published in his hometown newspaper.
Read the letter
A Pittston correspondent on Washington’s war fever and the “Peace Party”
“You can form no correct idea of the gigantic preparation the Government is making for defensive and offensive operations…”
The author of this letter provided a vivid picture of Washington as soldiers poured into the city by the thousands in the late summer of 1861.
Read the letter
“After a renewal of vows, I was forced to leave that sacred spot…”
A Luzerne County soldier’s letter describes a trip home to Pennsylvania to mourn the loss of his young wife and his unit’s encampment on the banks of the Potomac River just a rifle shot away from the enemy.
Read the letter
Featured Image: Military units at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1861 – Harper’s Weekly Magazine
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