“The loss of our young friends leaves a gloom over us” | A letter from the Battle of Antietam

On the blood-soaked fields of Antietam, a captain from Scranton, PA wrote home of the horrors of a Civil War battlefield and the fall of the regiment’s colonel. Bullets tore through bodies, faces masked in smoke and dust, boys became veterans in minutes. This firsthand letter from the 132nd Pennsylvania brings the battle almost unbearably close, in raw detail. Read the full story.

A Coal Region Civil War soldier explains the soldier’s love for coffee

Civil War soldier Frederick Hitchcock called army coffee “the soldiers’ solace and stay.” Learn how a hot cup fueled tired, homesick troops in Pennsylvania’s 132nd. A brew so beloved, it revived spirits on freezing picket nights and endless marches alike. Read the full story.