February 8, 1864
Today’s letter has some of the most detailed writing of the whole collection. Abbott apparently had quite a bit he wanted to tell the family about! Before I get into the particulars regarding his recent travels and fighting, I thought I’d point out the part of the letter that was most striking to me. During this letter, Abbott mentions how he spent his recent 21st birthday. I think it’s easy to forget how young he actually was during the war. Oftentimes, he comes across in the letters has being an old soul and wise beyond his years. But he was very young and was about the same age as I am now. I can’t even begin to imagine living his life at twenty-one. He had probably already experienced far more than people much older than him ever would. The rest of the letter is essentially Abbott recounting various tidbits of information regarding his experiences since he last corresponded with the family. He frequently mentions small engagements with Confederate forces. I tried to look up whether or not this was common but had a hard time finding any information about minor skirmishes. It would make sense for them to occur, since not every battle was going to be a major, decisive fight. I’m sure the two sides encountered each other frequently along the roads as well. However, I understand it is only natural that the information that comes up when searching for Civil War battles is related to the more well-known battles, like Antietam or Gettysburg. I’m sure that it is next to impossible to know how many little fights occurred on an everyday basis. Again, Abbott’s recollections show their value here, as he sheds light on the fact that on any given day, one could find themselves engaged in a battle, big or small. He closes the letter in a fashion that is quite typical for a person of his age. He remarks to his sisters that in their previous letter, they mentioned a girl named Mollie. It seems like his sisters believed she was in love with Abbott and were imploring him to help them convince her that he liked her in return. But Abbott firmly states that he has no such feelings for her anymore and is confident that she feels the same. I just thought that this was a very relatable part of the letter as people today obviously fret over relationships and how others feel about them. It shows that no matter what era you live in, there are still some things that stay the same over the course of history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorTessa Wakefield, student intern at the Concordia College Archives, assembled these blog entries in 2013-2014 for the Isaac Mark Abbott Civil War Letters Collection. The posts summarize the content of the letters, interpret Abbott's experiences and place them in the larger context of the Civil War. Archives
March 2014
Categories
All
|