Men bathing in a stream, spreading out under the trees for a nap, watching an eagle pass overhead — Charles Cyphers' fourth letter from Camp Slifer captures the quiet, restless rhythm of soldiers waiting for the war to find them. Read the full letter.
Rumors were flying back home about hungry, mistreated soldiers at Camp Slifer. Michael McCarty — a County Longford man turned Luzerne County coal miner — had heard enough. He shared a letter from his friend Corporal Devenney at the front to set the record straight. Devenney had gained four pounds since enlisting in the US Army. Read the full letter.
Ten days after Antietam, a young soldier from Wiconisco Township, PA sat down to put it into words for his father back home. Private Joseph Workman of the 96th Pennsylvania had just walked the battlefield days earlier. "I saw an awful sight," he wrote. "We had to move away from there on account of the stink." His letter, recently digitized by the Library of Congress, provides insights into what he witnessed at the Battle of South Mountain as well. Read the full story.
A young student from Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA traded his classroom for an army camp near Chambersburg in the spring of 1861. He and wrote back to a classmate about the food, the boredom, and his burning desire to meet the rebels in battle. Read the full letter.
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 are a moving window into the bond between the home front and the front lines in the war's early months. Read the full letters.
On the morning of May 4, 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 is a vivid snapshot of soldiers waiting, wondering, and trying to stay warm. Read the full letter.
The coal miners of the Ringgold Infantry had been in Washington less than a week — sleeping on bare floors, waiting on uniforms, short on food in the Civil War's early weeks. One of them picked up a pen and wrote home. His letter captures the chaos, the humor, and the strange excitement of the Civil War's earliest days. Read the letter.
“If you could but see our outfit, methinks that you would not want to be a soldier.” Writing from Camp Slifer in April 1861, Sergeant Charles Cyphers described the long hours, rough conditions, and early realities of army life just miles from the Mason-Dixon line - where the Civil War was escalating.
“It is almost impossible to form a word, on account of the noise and confusion caused by about 800 men around me…” Just days into his service in April 1861, a Pottsville, PA ironworker-turned-officer found himself swept into the chaos of war—writing from a crowded Philadelphia camp as soldiers drilled, trains moved south, and the Union rushed to hold itself together. Read the full story.
“With many regrets at leaving our families and friends behind us, we still had the consolation to know that we have enlisted our lives and honors in the most noble cause…” In April 1861, as volunteers poured into Camp Curtin, a Schuylkill County printer-turned-soldier captured the surge of patriotism, noise, and uncertainty at the very start of the Civil War - writing his letter on a tin pan between drills as his war began. Read the full story.