Civil War Letter... found poetry?

All letters sent in war to loved ones are letters of Poetry , there is no anger in war letterers from loved ones. just beilderment and pain .

Today as I write to you my darling ,men are dying tragically .

The start of letters in war deliver a sharp blow.

Good write, thanks for war letter poem :)

Almost missed this (I am increasingly somewhere more interesting) - that would have been a shame.

I think that there is a lot of potential interest here. The Civil War was a mess, and if more people would only think about how and why it got to be such a mess there would be fewer Vietnams do deal with.

I think there is a lot to be said for your preparing these poems for publication - whether that means local pamphlets, internet forums, YouTube videos ..... all valid ways of talking to people.

I think it would help if you expanded contractions which are no longer intuitively obvious:

38th Alabama Infantry Volunteers

and perhaps also linked the dates to something more meaningful. This letter comes after Chickamunga, but before Resaca. The 38th were on a high, but it was all downhill from there.

I think it might also help if you broke up the text more into verse paragraphs. Parts of this letter are very well written, it is completely licit to set it as if it were poetry.

......

It is always fascinating, and often instructive, to look at how people deal with disaster - natural or artificial. Ambrose Bierce' Iconoclastic Memoirs are a fascinating account of the Civil War from the Union side.

From my own experience, I was lucky enough not to actually lose anyone close to me at Aberfan; but having that sort of thing happen on your doorstep is bound to touch you. It's surprising how many ways a tragedy finds to break people, and how long the wound can take developing.

A sad letter indeed.What I find interesting about letters from

this period is the way they are composed.My great great grandfather

was with the Massachusetts 13th infantry.There is a group of us

on the internet whose relatives were all with the Mass/13th.The letters

some have posted are profound and quite sad.Unfortunate for me no

letters have been found written by my great great grandfather.You are

very fortunate to have such a letter.Take care of it my friend it's history.

My gg/gf was born 1831..His name was Thomas

That really is beautiful. I like to think myself too young to yearn for any "good old days," but I think a care in writing resulted naturally from handwritten letters as a form. And I suppose the moment necessitated this kind of care as well. I love the way it moves from careful diction to a looser, more colloquial wording as the tone gets more concerned, and perhaps rushed. So much comes through beyond the literal text here...

This is really a nice piece all around; thank you for sharing!

Poignant post of perhaps, when put in perspective,

the most tragic chapter of our Nations history.

Life expectancy in the 1860's was early 40's

and one had little better than a 50 / 50 chance

of surviving childhood.

Life was taken much more seriously, I feel.

Thanks for this piece

from our past, adeline.

Now this is the kind of history lesson I would have loved in school. You have a great way with timing as well, considering that this is so solemn and benign a posting with merit and value deeper than the words themselves. I am off to read the other.

And Adeline? THANK YOU>LC

Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating. And I have letters of three generations of male relatives, all in war to their loved one. It seems nothing changes, the cause, the uniform, the weapons do, of course, but the bottom line is always families torn apart and worry for one another in their absence. Thank you for sharing this with us, what a treasure!

Tears wet the pages of our momeries

With things we tried to remember

And others we tried hard to forget

Some we could easily forgive

And others just etched

Time is abstract or invisible

Bit it is never void

I held them close to cherish

Faces fade and some return to us

In dreams and dialogue like these

Keep them safe and dear ,my sweet lady

Adeline

What a precious gift of history. The fact that you have the want to preserve this is a testimony to your character. This is so special it's not even funny.

Thanks

A glimpse into some one else's world.

A piece of history with the real meaning of sacrifice.

Not a thing for someone like me to judge .