This text encompasses a series of two war letters addressed to a confederate soldier written by his wife. The wife discusses a range of issues which are important to them both: the approaching union army, the pillaging of the union army, the desertion of many confederate soldiers and his wife's desire that her husband desert the army unequivocally. Both the wife (Gertrude) and the solider (Nathan) named in these letters are fictional.
¶ … Nathan
I cannot tell you how much my heart is a-yearning for yours and how regularly I fret for your safe passage. I have been praying that you and your men will be guaranteed protection and I have asked God to grant you a certain amount of guardianship and shielding.
I have been worried into a near feverish state and have been bereft with anxiety and panic. With the new year a-coming I have gotten word of late about the approach of General Sherman's northern army and I am dreadfully afraid of their approach, as they have been known to pillage and burn everything they encounter in their path. Miss Mollie told me frightful stories of local raiders who posed as U.S. soldiers in order to gain the confidence of the townspeople that they encounter, only to damn them later. I have spent many a sleepless night watching the fires on the horizon and wondering if my time was up or rapidly approaching. My dearest, I don't mean to cause you any pain or agony with this discussion. I just wanted to let you know of everything that is going through my head at this time. Telling you, my sweetheart and my beau, helps me to know that everything will be rectified in the end. It soothes my heartstrings like truly nothing else can, and I beg you to indulge me further.
I want you to know that I have hidden all of our most valuable possessions, so please do not worry about the safety of your grandmother's broach, or the sanctity of your great aunts gathering of silk handkerchiefs. I've wrapped everything in a meter of old lace, and I have wrapped it up tightly. I've also buried so many of our pieces of silver in the cemetery next to your great grandmother's headstone so that they will forever be safe and preserved from the passing Union troops. I've even sent my mules into the woods, preventing them from being pillaged by the Union army, and all my stores of meat have been divided up among my slaves. The Union troops to the north of us that passed through the local town set fire to the cotton bales in the barns of some of my relatives. This was a truly catastrophic event as much of my aunt's property was burned to the ground: the blaze did however, burn out before spreading, thus the property of my neighbors was largely spared, and all widespread destruction of this area did not occur, though the union soldiers would probably have liked this to occur. I'm working hard for the recovery of our farm so that when you do return to me, you won't be faced with a picture of devastation and unhappiness. I want the state of the farm to look fresh and promising for you, not like a portrait of dimness and melancholy.
It will. I know it will.
As always I remain
Your sweetheart,
Gertrude Meyers
February 12, 1864
Dearest Nathan,
As ever, my heart and head miss you fully and completely, and I fear that if the head men do not soon end this war, the soldiers will afterall. Dear Nathan, I've heard nothing but reports of the soldier be running away from down east by the hundreds. Each week I hear of reports of confederate soldiers deserting the army by the hundreds. The army has been well-armed but the overwhelming word is that the soldiers won't go back, and for the most part I don't blame them. In my heart of hearts, I wish all the soldiers would run away and that these head men would be obliged to fight it out on their own. However, it seems that as long as these head men can stay at home, and speculate off the shoulders of these poor soldiers, they just don't care how long the war lasts.
I wish you would leave the army and come back to us. I think it is a marvel and by the grace of God you have managed to stay alive this long, but I can't stand this to go on much longer. I've heard that some of the soldiers who left the confederacy were able to evade capture by the home guards which is entirely promising. Back here the draft is growing stronger and just a few months earlier the confederacy issued an order which decreed that all men between the ages of 17 and 50 who had not yet joined the army were going to be forced into service whether they liked it or not, and despite what they wanted for themselves. More and more deserters have been executed, I've heard in a frantic attempt by the army to attempt to impose order. This savagery does nothing but extend my own disillusionment. Your last letter to me was incredibly disheartening as it appears as though you believe that the confederate army will never be able to gain another victory.
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