TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

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It continually amazes me what you can find on the web. Among the more interesting are sites that feature unpublished letters and sometimes photos, usually by descendants of Civil War soldiers. It’s all valuable, and it’s like being able to look through someone’s attic.

One site I stumbled across recently is a site devoted to the letters of Private William Laban Brown of the 3rd Tennessee (Union) Cavalry. Brown was captured in mid-war and held in the usual atrocious prison conditions. What makes his story especially poignant, however, is that he died after being released as one of the 1,800 unfortunates who went down on the steamer Sultana, whose boiler exploded on the night of April 24, 1865, while transporting soldiers, many, like Brown, former prisoners of war. One of the letters transcribed by great-grandson Eric Blackwell is a letter from Brown’s wife telling him that she’s heard about a tragedy involving a steamer with a number of troops. It was returned unopened.

Another is a book promotion site, Give God the Glory, which features the letters and diary of Private Simon Cummings of Co. H, 151st New York. I have a copy of the book, which is excellent source material. Among the things I was able to confirm was General John Sedgwick’s last words: “Couldn’t hit an elephant.” All in all a good set of letters from the Eastern theater.

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