Letters from War: 1861 | Charles Cyphers writes from Martinsburg after the 8th Pennsylvania’s first battle in Virginia

Posted on by Jake Wynn

"The battle lasted half an hour" After months of drilling at Camp Slifer and a long march south, Charles Cyphers finally had a battle to report. Writing fast from Martinsburg on July 7, he gave Pittston Gazette readers their first eyewitness account of Hoke's Run — and the dozens of locomotives the rebels had burned on their way out of Martinsburg, VA. Read the full letter.

Letters from War: 1861 | “We got the hottest of the fire” – A Pittston photographer writes from Martinsburg

Posted on by Jake Wynn

"The enemy's balls whistled like hail about our ears." Sergeant Francis Woodhouse stood his ground as cannon fire tore through the lines at Hoke's Run and watched two Pittston men fall wounded beside him. He came through without a scratch and wrote home four days later with one of the most vivid firsthand accounts in this series. Read the full letter.