Lightfoot Paper, 1865
Source: Guide to the Lightfoot Paper, 1865, Manuscript Collection #12
Staff Person: Jonathan Dembo
Description:
Page 2 of a Letter (28 May 1865) from an anonymous pro-Union woman in Gainesville, Georgia to her sister in the North.
Page 3 of a Letter (28 May 1865) from an anonymous pro-Union woman in Gainesville, Georgia to her sister in the North.
At left and right are two pages from a 6-page letter (28 May 1865) handwritten by an anonymous Pro-Union woman living in Gainesville, Georgia to her sister in the North shortly after the end of the civil war. In the segment of the letter shown she describes the murder of 12 of 24 Union prisoners of war, captured by Southern Home Guard troops in November 1864, during General William Tecumseh Sherman’s march to Atlanta and then to Savannah; in other portions of the letter she describes the arrival of hordes of starving soldiers demanding food, the wartime suffering of the people in the South due to the blockade; the financial losses of southerners who invested in Confederate bonds; and the efforts of ladies to prepare clothes for soldiers. She also recounts her refusal to support secession or participate in pro-war activities; plans of neighbors to move to Mexico following the defeat of the Confederacy; the lack of new clothes as a result of the war; five years worth of family news; and the fears of her neighbors for the future including whether slaves would actually be freed and Southern land confiscated. Photocopied. 6 p. 2 copies. Loaned for copying my Miss Jean Lightfoot, 9/25/1967. To view the entire letter and a transcript please visit the Special Collections Department of Joyner Library.