Now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce this book and its editors. Tom and lynn. The Walters Family letters are here at the National Postal museum, and they are really at the heart of this book. And one of the wonderful things about the way that they have organized this book is that the letters really pull you in to a period 160 years ago and help you understand the centrality of the written word, particularly at a time when families are frequently separated for the first time and they have provided the information that you need to not only understand the family networks, but the Community Networks and the Postal Network and whats happening geopolitically in the United States during the civil war. So really looking forward to this talk. Lynn heidelberg is a curator here at the smithsonian National Postal museum. Shes specializes in the history of u. S. Postal service and has published essays and created several exhibits, specifically in this case on military mail, including mail call, which you can visit out in the gallery floor as well as my fellow soldiers letters from world war one, for which she received the smithson sheehan secretarys Research Prize in 2018. Thomas halon curates the lighter than air collections, including balloons, lamps and airships at the Smithsonian National air and space museum. His research focuses on ballooning in the civil war, as well as the use of airships and blimps in america. He is the coauthor of milestones of flight the epic of aviation with the national air and space museum. So in december 1863, rachel ward walters sat down to write a letter from her home in northwestern indiana, and she opened it in a phrase to her husband, who was miles away serving in the fifth indiana calvary. And she wrote, quote, kind and affectionate companion once more. I attempt to address you by the silent language of the pen. Four months later, her sister, phoebe ward duncan, used very similar words when she wrote to david as well in keeping up these family connections. And she wrote in april 1864, my dear brother, after a shameful silence, which i beg to pardon you, i once again address you by the silent language of the pen. And although rachel and phoebe say that their language is silence, were hoping that that through their letters in the collection, that we will talk about tonight, that their words come alive and their expressions that they share with their family, their thoughts and their perspective, in particular during a moment of national strife, and certainly for this family and the individuals within it and the phrases that rachel and phoebe and others used about the silent language of the pen are really embody what people were trying to do with the mail. And to keep up that communication. Those kind of phrases were the conventions of the time. They were used to a certain etiquette of letter writing, and it was very widespread. So it was common to to run into such phrases as these. They were commonly taught when at school for reading and writing purposes. And it was a time where more and more people were writing letters. In the mid 19th century, more americans were becoming accustomed to using the mail. It had become far more affordable, all with the reforms of the post office in the mid 19th century, making the postage more affordable and using innovations like the postage stamp which make it far more easy to access. And in that time, the americans had become used to a reliable mail service, that they had become used to a certain timeliness of those letters and they talked to each other through that language of those letters about the timeliness and always making note of when they had received a letter and apologizing if they were delayed. And of course, those kind of delays became far more emotionally compounded when times of war, like the walters, a family experienced. And so turning to those kind of stop phrases that rachel and phoebe used was a way to sort of get yourself writing and being able to to use some of those customs that everybody was was used to at a time where some of the mail was not flowing as easily as it had before. But the post Office Department and the military made every effort to keep the personal letters flowing, particularly through the lines of the homefront. And and there was on the front keeping both informed of the reasons why they were fighting and and keeping them in touch with each other. Its these kind of letters that were sharing through this collection tonight thats here at the National Postal museum. And it came to us in to installments from the Walters Family of of indiana. They donated it to the smithsonian in the first few items that came to the smithsonian in 1964, donated by arthur walters, the grandson of david and walter and his daughter, june walters. Leonard donat bulk of the collection of the letters in 1991. The picture here is of willard and amelia. Walters this willard being the son of david and rachel walters. So its through their family line that we have these letters to share with you and share with American Public in this donation. It becomes clear why the Walters Family valued these letters. Theres 180 letters and papers, mostly of the use of envelopes that se way te mail travel, the cost of that mail. When the address had to chan to find somebody who had relocated and ttmarks of the work that the post office was doing to to procese mail. We have about 100 of those envelopes and about 80 or so letters and a few items of ephemera that the family enclosed while trying to communicate with each other, including the item in the middle here, which is a special order that was issued in 1863, and that david had chosen to enclose in this pe with his letter thats pictured. And this was at a time while david was serving in kentucky, a border state, and working with the fidiana calvary secure a peace in the area. In particular, this special declared martial law in the counties so that the state election could go along peacefully. So this is one of the kind of items that he chose to share with his wife, to let her know the kind of experiences that he was having. And then these passed through the family and into the collection. So were fortunate to have not only their letters and their words, but also these kind of mementos that they shared, even some small souvenirs, but also some of the pension documents that the family worked with to to work in the aftermath of the war. The entire collection actually spans from the beginning of the war, and it just prewar of 1859, with a few letters with rachel beginning the relationship with david just before they were married. And it closes with her letters. In 1868. Through this wonderful collection. We were able to really start to pull out the details, not only about the experience during the war, but but also the experience that each of these different family members, each of these different writers had. And we started by completing an accurate transcription of the letters. And then we placed them in chronological order. And once we did that, they were no longer just 180 pieces of individual pieces of mail and envelopes. But there was a story. There was a narrative that that evolved from that. We were really able to see conversations start to develop the these family members would write a letter and someone would respond to questions that were were sent in that. And it really, again, gave them a life that they they you didnt realize before that time. You really start to see connections form this network thats created in this family of letter writers so that they could keep up with what was going on and understand what experience each of them is having. The although there are several writers in the collection that only have a few mentions like phoebe, as lynn mentioned, the collection really consists of these five main writers. Theyre the ones that really are the the heart and soul of the collection. First, weavrachel jane ward as lynn mentioned, she marries David Walters on december 16th, 1860, becoming rhewalters. She becomes this nexus of this mmication hub. She is one of the stiterate of all the writers and in fact, works as a schoolteacher a year later. And she really is the one that the brothers and brother, her brothers in law and her husband are writing to her. And then shes disseminating that information back to the other brothers and also including messages from whats going on at home, you know, in their county or in their individual houses and anything that will help them stay connected to their home. So she becomes a critical element of this. This group of of letters. Next, we have David Walters, her husband, who, as lynn mentioned, joined t fth indiana calvary. He serves generally in the cera area of the country. We have isaac walters, who is one of the fir othe brothers to join up. He joinshe0th indiana infantry. He serves along the east coast in the Eastern Theater of the war, mostly in virginia. We have john wesley walters, the youngest of the brothers. He joins the 46th indiana infantry and hes stationed in, at the time, the western theater, which is actually the mississippi river. And these three brothers are literally sent to the Three Corners of the war. Theyre as geographically separate as they can be. And it only makes that network of communication even more important. And then finally, we have John Louderback. Hes in davids company. He eventually becomes the Commanding Officer of davids company. But through his letters, we were able to decipher that some of davids early letters are most likely written by him. So most likely dictated by david. But written by John Louderback to send messages home and the as we follow these letters through the conflicts, you really start to see the individual personalities come through. You see different penmanship, different grammar, different phrases that are used by the writers. For example, this is one of rachels letters. She uses a blue ink almos exclusively through the war. Theres a few that are not. But. T es really this is this is one of the ways u uld quickly tell that it was o o rachels letters. And here she draws a picture of a a u. S. Flag with the words Union Forever on it. This is the only one that she illustrated. But again, it it gives it such a personal touch. It its so important to to see who these people were, what, you know, why were they writing these letters and its it again, they really become these individuals instead of just, you know, kind of random pieces of paper. So although we have numerous letters in the collection, weve selected a few highlights, too, to present to you tonight to show you again who who this family was, who, who these people were. So the first one we have here is from isaac walters. He is described as being five foot ten inches with dark hair and gray eyes, a very basic description at the time. When he joins up, hes unmarried. Hes just shy of his 29th birthday. Hes the first of the walters brothers to join the union army. He joins company f of the 20th indiana. As we mentioned, he officially musters in on july 22nd, 1861. And this is the first letter that we have in the collection. The first one that he sent home, dated october 17th, 1861. So between that time, he is in traingamp in indiana before his unit is again shipped out to the east coast. And he actually ndsimself in the Eastern Theater of war along some othcoastalslands of north carolina. The union makes an effort early in the war to capture some of those islands, to protect naval assets that were going to be going up and down the coast. And he is involved in some of these very early campaigns. And he he also so in this letter, one of the first things he specifically mentions is news that he had received most likely from rachel in a previous tter, which is not in the colltion. And he writes about he mentions news from home andays, quote, i s a little surprised to hear that you had an air so soon, but i hope you will live and do well in order tt dave will have somedy to set up corn for him. I fancy his name very much. I believe it is the very name that i would have given him myself. So what hes responding to is the fact that david and rachel had had a son, willard, who youd seen in that previous picture. And they had obviously just informed isaac of his birth. So, again, youre already starting to see this network forming the the importance of these letters as theyre sharing information back and forth. Isaac goes on to give some detail about what hes experienced back to the family, describing his experiences in north carolina. He writes, there was nearly half of the regiment taking medicine at the present time, and there is still more taking sick. This is a very sickly whole. So thats not how most people would describe hatteras nowadays. But at the time this was what he experienced. There was great sickness there and his regiment really suffered. Why they were there. So this really is a the start of a Grueling Campaign for the 20th indiana. They end up fighting in some of the fiercest battles of the civil war. And isaac takes part in many of them. So this kind of beginning stage of the war for him, definitely leads to to more serious combat later. Almost a year after the letter by isaac. Two of his brothers join up. They both fall into, including the oldest brother of the walters eli walters, who joins with isaac in the 20 at the indiana. Their Third Brother in line wine. David walters joins in september of 1862 with the fifth indiana calvary. And its shortly thereafter that he reports to camp joe reynolds in indianapolis over 100 miles from his home, leaving his wife and his infant son. From the records, we know a little bit about David Walters and his time with the fifth indiana calvary. We find a little bit about his past in the military records as well, that he was a farmer, that he was 23 years of three years of age when he volunteered that like his brother isaac, he was also five foot ten, had a dark complexion and dark hair and brown eyes. So those are the only ways that we have to picture. David, other than his letters. We do know that once he reached indianapolis, he was soon put through the paces of drilling. And he writes this to his wife about this. This would prepare him with the fifth indiana calvary and the duties that they would soon have through the middle of the country. And later in the war, preparing for the campaign through georgia at the time that he writes this in october. First, he writes to his wife about some of the excitement of his having with these new events and having joined and becoming a soldier. He writes, quote, were drilling about as strong as ever we can. And yesterday, there was about 00 on drill. At one time. And today we had about the same number of soldiers and about 30 to 40000 spectators. We had the biggest time today that we had since ive been here. We had a regular sham battle and fired about 25 rounds apiece. And there was infantry and calvary and two cannon. And the engagement. And there was also a general two of you and the governor. And he goes on to tell his wife the reasons why he had volunteered and the moment he writes, i quote, im sorry that your put so much trouble with our things. It cant be help now. And i feel im doing my duty to help and maintain the laws of our country and put down the wicked rebellion. Its one of the few times in the series of about 18 letters we have in the collection that he discusses the reason why he has joined up and in a way, the void that he enclosed this kind of echoes what he is saying in e letter with the triotic symbols that it has on it. At the center of it is a American Eagle and the seal of the u. S. Around it are 34 pennants with abbreviations for 34 states, including all of the states that had recently seceded during the war. And just a few days time, his wife was writing a letter at home and 20 year old and raising their one year old willie. She was writing about her new experience of moving from Royals Center in their home that she had shared with david to star city closer to some of her other family members. She discusses going to church and the things about farming. And again, as tom pointed out, using her blue ink, that was very common. This is one of the letters that is available to see in the gallery this evening and shows this side of the page of a two sided page. Well worn and likely to have been re read as she wrote to david about what was going on at home. She wrote, i quote, william, hes not very well and hes cutting his teeth, which makes him very fretful, but hes getting better. So he can go down and play a little. And i hope these lines reach you and that you find you will. I received two letters today and one from you lately was last thursday evening and one on monday evening. That was the one that you sent that was directed to royal center and then was re mailed when it was sent on to star city. And like many conventions of the time, she does keep recounting about the way the mail was moving and her kind of duty and being a good letter writer. And she closes with saying, quote, i must close. Is there waiting to take the letter to the office. And willie is crying for me to take him. So please write soon as you get this. And that pleading for more letters is a Common Thread throughout the Walters Family. Several months later, rachel receives a letter from john wesley. He is described as similar to isaac, though hes shorter at five foot six. Hes the youngest of the brothers. Hes only 20 years old. When he joins the regiment. During the 46 indiana, he mustered into Union Service in october of 1861 and receives training in indiana before again joining the union army, moving down the mississippi river. He is he and his unit are actively engaged in several of the early battles in that that theater, including a battle for Island Number ten, which was a fortified island. The Confederate Army had built up to try to prevent any ships from going by that they fight to to take to open up the way the this specific letter written june 10th, 1863. Details some of the nonstop campaigning that john wesley had experienced with his unit. And he uses this letter to inform the family of wound he had received. He writes, we found them. I found them referring to the Confederate Army at a place called t champions hill. There is where i got wounded. A musket ball struck me on my right side, just above the hip. We lay there three weeks. This letter helped dispel some rumors that had reached indiana that hed actually been killed in the battle Champion Hill battle that preceded what would be the siege of vicksburg and the the this ability to send that home certainly must have relieved those. And to dispel such a rumor, he also explains in this letter that after being kind of stuck at the on the battlefield for so long, he is eventually moved to a a larger hospital in memphis to recover. He also relays to rachel how glad he was to have received a letter from her and received news from back home. He writes. You also spoke about david. Im glad you told me where he is. I wrote him a long letter if he gets it. I want you to let me know what he thought of it. So again, this this is another example of just how important this this network is to the brothers. Not only are they receiving news from home, but one of the quickest way for them to receive news from the other brothers is to go receive it from from rachel. So theyre theyre literally using her as kind of the the middle two to get that information back. And forth. He his unit goes on to participate in the siege of vicksburg, as i mentioned. He, however, does not. It takes him some time to recover from the wounds he received at champions hill. Hes placed in some roles guarding railroads and whatnot behind the union lines as he recovers from that. But rachel continues to write to isaac and john wesley throughout their service. Again, acting as this this nexus. And she, of course, continues to write to david while hes in the field. So this letter that we selected from rachel to david is about a year after that one from john wesley. Its midmay 1864, and her life is rather busy on the home front. Shes again sharing all the news about the family, the health of the neighbors. And is talking about the union use. But much of it focuses on herself. And theres manyhis that shes doing. So ill read you a long passage that she has and let her words speak for themselves. Quote, im still trying to teach school. And the prospect begins to look lile fairer. My School Average frombo 20 to 4 to about 28. This week. It looks a little more encouraging. And this saturday, ive been covering the corn for pap and about for noon. And i expect to help this afternoon asel hes got about 18 acres plte and i dont know how much hes going to plant really as well. And hes well pleo see me come home. We always runs to me and he says that hes mamaboand pies y. And he says the pause down in dixie fighting rebels. And so i asked him what he thought aboupiand what would perfection when he came home. And he said tught the piwo fetch him some little but im ready now to go out to the field. And so i must finish this a little while later. And she does too. You. Continues the letter the next day on may 15th, this time telling david about visiting his sister martha. She tells them about a letter that she received from his sister emeline and we do have correspondence from both of those sisters in the collection as well. But its a closing that she uses at the end of this may 15th letter in which she writes again about sort of the receiving the letters and the timeline. And she writes, quote, i will close hoping to hear from you as soon as possible and try to write oftener as i have been trying to do. Ill send you a few stamps in this letter. I will send you more at the time, but im afraid you might not get them. And in some ways, some of the web, as we were looking at the letters, there were things that were prescient in many of these at the time that she is writing. And may 14, through 15. David is engaged at the battle of masaka in northern georgia. Its a pretty evenly matched battle between the union and the confederate forces. It actually is an inconclusive battle, but his regiment and his company suffer a number of casualty issues, including the capture of david, which we believe happened on may 14th. Its not until later in may. Does rachel receive word about davids capture . And this is all through the auspices of his Commanding Officer, John Louderback, who has taken it upon himself to write a letter before he himself is captured at the next battle that the fifth indiana calvary is engaged in and sent on to the anderson prison, andersonville prison. This letter from ice rachel is written only a few months later and he has obviously learned the information about davids capture from rachel. He responds in this letter to offer his condolences that that david had been captured. As we follow this family through the war, through these letters, this one parcularly became quite heartbreaking. Isaacs tone shifts dramatically from some of his early ms in the war to. To this point. And you can really start to see how not only tpaigns that hes engaged in are wearing on him, but the news from whats happening to his brothers, whats happening to his family is also starting to weigh on him more and more. He he the condolences he offers are as such. Quote, i feel very sorry for you that you cant hear from david. You must be on great suspense d you must feel very lonely. But you must look upon the bright side of the picture and hope for the best. I think he will turn up all right some time. If the gray backs dont starve to death and i hope thl fail in this if they undertake it. I think david has a pretty good constitutionndill get through. All right. If he is only alive. So again, this just this small, you know, portion of the letter just showcases, again, the suffering that, you know, isaac is feeling for his brother and being so far from home, being unable to know how his brothers doing and that his one connection is rachel. The the war weariness that that isaac is suffering comes through also. And later in this letter, he writes, i think the war will close sometime or never if it never closes, i guess there is no danger of us poor soldiers getting out of a job. I will close for the present, hoping soon to hear from you. And this. The sullen attitude most likely comes from the fact that his unit had not been engaged almost continuously in the siege of petersburg city in richmond, which the union army was attempting to capture. And then capturing richmond, virginia, the capital, the confederacy. So he even writes that hes located in the camp during the siege at that time. So the war is again weighing heavily on isaac as as all the family, as it continues, as the the suffering continues for the family. This letter written about a year later by John Lauterbach to rachel walters, is represents the type of letter tha no one went to receive during the war, but so many did. He is writing to rachel to inform her of the death of her sbd during the civil war. There was no formal way for families to be informed of such matters. Oftentimes times, casualties from units would be published in local newspapers, or it was up to a Commanding Officer to write home to provide such details. Lauterbach starts the letter b not weary or oubled. Trust in the lord, for he is able to comfort. He continues, i think i am saf in saying that your husband, d. W walters, died in rebel prison about the 10th of february. I saw him about the fifth. He was done unableo help himself. I waited on him and gave him as much comfort as i could untii was taken down myself. He often spoke of you and his littleoy, which he oke of with a great deal of respect and seemed to be waiting with a great deal of anxiety for the time to me. When the prison doors wou be thrown open and he could return to his loved ones at home. But alas, th small amount of meal that he was allowed was not sufficient for him. I did not see him die myself, but i have been told by competent persons that he died about the time that i have stated. Captain lauterbach goes on to provide some basic details, adds rachel, as to how she can start the process to apply for a pension. As a widow, she would be entitled to one, and although she was entitled to one. That process would become a years long time consuming pursuit for her. In part because of duties like captain lauterbach took upon himself that it wasnt a formal situation where there were documentation for it, as he said in a letter, and got her back to the letter. He says he is not completing davids mustering out papers. Hes not completing the paperwork for david. And so its left to rachel to put that together, which this one letter front and back shows us that some of that process went on for four years. The letter on the front side, on the far goes to town over there is rachel writing in response to a letter that she had sent previously to the missing soldiersffice in washington, d. C. And shes correcting some information that she needs to to have publish the missing Soldiers Officer was established in 1865 by clara barton soon after, she finiss her medical assistance work with the union army and she sees that this kind of lack of information in a formalized system of telling families about the soldiers atus of missing in action, killed in action, and whether theyre returning from p. O. W. Camps spurs her to start a office that deals with correspondence with veterans and for their families. They devise a way to publicize this by soliciting names from the family to be put into the local newspapers and then soliciting, then the response from veterans to write to the missing Soldiers Office with any information they may have with their about their comrades. So rachel uses this in a way that is a typical than many of the americans that were writing to the missing Soldiers Office because unlike some of americans who were looking for their husbands like rachel, were looking for fathers and uncles, she was looking for that information. She already knew. She already knew the outcome for for david what she needed was to have a witness who would be able to put this on paper, that she could secure the money that would support herself and the toddler son willing. So in writing, she wrote to the missing Soldiers Office to make sure that davids name spelled correctly. They had written to her to say that David Walters would be included on one of these roles that would go to the local newspapers. And she corrected them that it had to be david and they flipped the paper over at the office and returned it to her with assurances that, yes, david, w walters will be listed as a member of the fifth indiana cavalry and its signed for clara barton in her name by one of the office workers, the missing Soldiers Office operated for the three years and during that time they connected over 22,000 americans with information about miin ldrs. This took about 100,000 letters that were circulated by the missing Soldiers Office of inquiries that they were sending out. And about personal letters like the one that they we sding to rachel, including the one here on their letter statied that mentions that they are the office of correspondence. D it on this letter they are taking the testimony of one of the veterans by the name ofoh brown, who is also from indiana. And sharing that with rachel, that john brown has informed them that that he saw david die at four in south carolina. This is exactly the kind of information that rachel needed to secure a pension. But upon further work with the pension documents that are in the collection and those that are at the national archives, we know that it wasnt john browns witness testimony or one of the other letters that we have in the collection, the four through the missing Soldiers Office, that finally, rachel, the pension there was a third veteran who came forward and gave witness testimony. And so after two years, almost three years of trying, she did secure the pension in september of 1865. Sorry, 68. And we know that. Only three months later she died, leaving their young son, willy in the care of her parents. Samuel ward jr, and her mother sarah. And its through the pension filing that sarah that rachel did that they were able to support willy with an 8 a month miners pension. Its those kind of documents that help us put together the story of this family and their experiences through the civil war. And as as rachel is, many parts of this Communication Network between these brothers, this sisters and other members of their community, what is puzzling in a way, is how did we end up with the letters and how did the Walters Family end up with rachels letters returning from david . And, of course took the efforts of david, certainly to save his letters from rachel. That meant he carried those with him through all the states that he traveled. Theres no sign on any of the envelopes that we have in the collection at any point that he say enclosed extra letters of hers and return them back to her. We do have one hint in one of the letters from John Lauterbach back now, one where he does inform her of davids death that davids effects are at his own house and she is welcome to come to the lauterbach house and pick up those effects, including a ten case, which i think would have very well preserved these kind of paper records of this family and the words that they exchanged each other, like the mystery of how the letters returned. We, we, we came upon some other mysteries with this this story, with developing this. And one of them was, in fact, the the location of davids death, although we had these affidavits and other testimonies of his death of a prisoner of war camp, there is a headstone located in Marietta National cemetery in marietta, georgia, in section a site for 73 that reads David Walters company i fifth indiana calvary. And we can assure you there were no other David Walters in company i of the fifth indiana calvary. And the site lists the date of death as june 5th, 1864, about three weeks after the date david is reported as captured. So in a time before dog tags dna, there was no way to really identify the dead after a battle other than those who knew them, hopefully being around to do so so. Miss ids did happen and it is fully possible that there is somebody else in that grave, but it is still made out to david. So that was something we, you know, we had to to research and puzzle over. We are pretty certain that with the the sheer amount of testimonies that that rachel herself gathered, that, you know, his death did occur in a prisoner of war camp. But it was something to consider that again, there is a grave in georgia. The other item that we couldnt ever locate was, a photograph of any of of the writers of these letters, even though in multiple letters we have them asking for photographs, describing going and getting photographs taken, writing about sending photographs to each other, and then complementing each other photographs. So throughout the letters, we have all of these these comments about photographs of each other. And there are none that we could find. There were the they were none that were included with the donation. There were the family currently did have any they were able to provide us that earlier photo of their son later in life, but nothing from the time period. And when we asked experts in civil war photography, especially at the center for civil war photography, in other places, they mentioned that many photographs not labeled. These were often sent to family members. So why would you label them . But as a result, as soon as those family members passed that that that identity goes with them. So its not uncommon to have unidentified photographs from the era. And the one that youre looking at right now was recently digitized by library of congress. This is in their collection, and its simpeled as an unidentified soldier of the fifth incalvary. So this is davids unit. So could that be possibly. But we we just dont know. And although the members of the Walters Family are faceless to us now, theyre voice still lives on, their story still lives on through the letters they saved and through the letters they wrote, they they documented what it was like to live through this terrible time in. American history and their story represents what many families went through during this time. And it was such a privilege for us to be able to really down into this story and to share it with you all. Thank you. Thank you. So hoping to take a q a and i know we have a microphone in the audience because were also on zoom online. So the microphone will be going around the audience and i know theres also potentially online questions as well. And were hoping as were sharing this collection through the book, that many others will come to this collection and bring their own questions about it as tom and i have any questions here. Thank you. I have a two part question. First off, can you speak to. Digitizing, transcribing this set of letters versus some of the other collections that youve worked through in the past . Was this particularly challenging or was this pretty standard . Was there any particular challenges with this collection versus others . I might add that with this collection, because of the various letter writers, there is a a sliding scale of difficulty, as we showed you with some of rachels letters, she has very nice script. Her her grammar tends to be kind of higher than most. So transcribing her letters were were on the easier part of that scale. David, on the other hand, from his letters, you can tell that he he was not as proficient in in his writing or his grammar. Those proved to be a little more difficult to to pass out. But it did improve through the war. You could tell that as he kind of had practice, that he got better with with with writing home. As we mentioned earlier, several of his letters. We we think were written by a different hand either John Lauterbach or another soldier in his unit. But he does he does write some one of the other aspects of this is almost all of them are written in ink, which did make it easier. Pencil has a tendency to smear and just over the years it it can be harder to read but ink helps stay as it is darker and it just allows you to to read a little easier. And in doing the transcriptions we tried to stay as true verbatim to what we found in the letters. So that means a lot of things are not spelled to a standard modern english and we actually kind of would advise people to read them almost aloud as many times. They would have probably been read aloud to share with with other family members and to share this kind of news. This is certainly a families that had gone to school, but for a different amounts of time. We looked at the census records and saw it different times that rachel ward and her siblings had gone to school for various amounts of time, as well as the many siblings in the Walters Family. So it does explain a sort of variations in their education level and. So much more of their letters is almost in like an oral tradition about how their their to each other through through these documents. But theyre also combining them with the etiquette of letter writing and some of those phrases. So those we tried to preserve. So my second question is so you mention you have about 180 letters in the collection. Can you hazard a guess . And how much is we do know for a fact that there are missing letters because they will several of them are referenced. Rachel will say in your letter of this date, which we dont have, i would say we have definitive some around maybe 15, 20 that are specifically referenced that we dont have we also dont have any of the letters that rachel sent to isaac or john wesley or the only letters of rachels we have are the ones that she sent to david. So that kind of her missives to them are missing. So a lot of what she told them, we were we could learn through some of their letters back, you know, in your letter of this date, you mentioned this. So we could get little puzzle pieces of what she had written to them, but not her full letters. And we have about 15 envelopes without the contents. So we know that we have the wrappers, but we dont have what they had written. It is, but it helped us in ways that we use them to figure out where they were at certain times and so it did inform us about how they were traveling, where the brothers were at were at certain times the number of letters that rachel was receiving, as well. So they did fill in some of those gaps, even though we did not have the contents. Behind. And it sounds like some of the important of these letters are the envelopes that they came in, the stamps that were on them. Was it maybe you mentioned this, but is it common . And why do you do you have some insight as to why they did keep the envelopes . Why not just the letters, especially thinking about trying to travel with all of these letters . Its just extra paper that you kind of have to bring with you. So what are your thoughts on that . I think its partly its maybe a little bit of lets have a wrapper on the outside to protect these letters as youre carrying them. It does also does become part of the story. And yes, some families choose to just save the contents of the letters and some museums and archives to save the the letters, not the envelopes. And in this case, we have it certainly was when the family was donating it. The first items that they donated, the smithsonian. Were seven of the envelopes. And then the letters came a year later, when they were ready to to donate, there was and i think it was partly just for them and for what it does for us. It tells part of that story of who has written on that address, how that moved, and have some of those dates that some of these letters dont include all the dates and places that they were and maybe some of that also helped. Rachel, you know, where people were and why she saved some of those. We have a couple coming in online. So the first that i have here is thank you for the wonderful and you mentioned that the letters themselves represent the narrative of the familys wartime experiences as editors. How much work did you have to do to fill in the gaps between the letters, or are there no significant gaps in the collection and its fairly robust. Between 1861 through 1865. From the beginning of the war, and then through the aftermath. What tom and i really tried to do was not intervene too much. We tried to, in the way that we approached the transcriptions, we tried to leave it as verbatim as possible. We used notes to to help identify some places and and peoples names that are maybe a little bit harder to read some period terms, but its the introductory essays that we give that are about each of the that i think fill in the this sort of put it in the context of whats happening in the nation, whats happening in the v. A. , whats happening in the community in which rachel lived and the walters brothers had lived. So i think we filled not many of the gaps. It was pretty small. We most of the wartime experiences, lynn said, was was wellrepresented in the letters we we did occasionally have to look at records of the units where they may have been to confirm certain things, especially when, for example, when isaac wrote in the camp, the 20th indiana, that thats not really a good. So being able to to kind of say, okay here but again that information was there. We knew they were in the camp for the 23rd year and we just had a pass it out a little bit. Most of the information we added would be things kind of more the background things from census records, from genealogical records, things like that, which was not necessarily in the letter. So that was really where we added most. But again, they they did provide a wealth of information that in the letters themselves that that didnt require us to go too deep into that area. And at least one occasion we did correct something to do. We found that rachel had misstated one of hers. And in june of 1864 and as many of us have this sort of moment, she wrote 1863, but none of the events that shes recording matched up with. She talks about someones death and someones marriage, which we knew from some of the other letters had actually happened in 1864. So we made a note of that. A couple more here to so has Clara Bartons missing Soldiers Office in washington dc been turned into a museum . It is, yes. It is a museum on seventh street. Its part of a complex with the National Civil war Medicine Museum and is is open. And then another common. Thank you for the very interesting talk and bringing these letter writers to life. Were there any surprises in the letters other than learning about the death or intimate details that would not be expected for that time period. Surprises i was when when going through these letters the first time, especially kind of working on the transcripts and whatnot, the bluntness of isaac in his letter that we talked about to to rachel about, you know, davids experience, that kind of caught me off guard. I was i was a little surprised that at how kind of forward he was with that information, especially in a kind of moment where hes trying to be consoling. So i dont know if that was a surprise, but that did that did hit pretty hard, as did captain lauterbachs letter. You know, as youre following along, youre you know, youre almost rooting. And then, you know, to get to that letter, it was it was very, you know, a punch in the gut, if you would, to to suddenly read that again. You you kind of get invested in this family that youre youre following their story. Youre seeing, you know, what theyre doing, what theyre experiencing. Rachel often writes about how much she misses david, and he writes about how much he would like to go home, things like that. So to kind of get to that point was, again, kind of a surprise, if you would. I cant think of any surprising details that were shared. Yeah, i think this surprises almost in reading them. When you read them for the first time, its almost put your put you in the experience of being the recipient and and this is all news. So if its the first time through of reading them, its as the story unfolds as it had to the recipient. But as many times as weve read it, no surprises are there. But some of the poignant moments certainly do remain with you. And then do any of the letters comment on the literacy or ability ability to write home of other soldiers in the various units or of overcoming those challenges . Yes, theres some of those kind of conventions of many letter writers often write about excuse me, for my penmanship very much. That was rachel would do that far more than i would say the brother is or david would do, and shes very conscious of it. Once in a while theyll write about the sort of state of the material that youre using. And so sorry about the the ink is not very strong at this time. Apologized when they didnt have a stamp. We have a letter from john wesley where he didnt expect to have had a stamp to pay for it. And so rachel would have had to pay for it upon delivery. But we do have that envelope and know that he must have found a stamp at some point. And there are moments where they talk about, of course, the sending and receiving of letters, but theres also moments where we do see them, particularly between david and rachel, start to use similar expressions in similar ways that theyre doing. Theyre there post scripts and talking to each other. So there is certainly a consciousness in how theyre writing to each other about letters. And as we mentioned, some of the letters from david are clearly in a different handwriting. So we dont know if he was unable to or if he was selfconscious his writing. But he it is obvious that at some point someone else is writing letters, that hes dictating. But then we do also have letters in his hand. So we dont know if he just didnt have someone who could write for him or if he had finally been taking a chance. But when he kind of starts copying some of rachels styles, that is in his hand. So it is interesting to see him kind of learning from her letter writing technique in his own letters, and then we have one more. Can you talk about the mail Delivery System during that time . Yeah, for the union forces and americans on the union side, it was pretty much business as usual, except for the mail had stopped being exchanged with the confederate states. So for getting mail to p. O. W. Is to those who were trying to cross the line. Many americans were using the express companies and there was could go through what were called excuse me, flag of truce points where there would be exchanges of goods, including the mail for the walters and their letters pretty were sort of on that timely convention that they were used to of the mail moving fairly rapidly with the strong Railway System in the north and through up to the the front that was done through the post Office Department, working through what they called special agents who were the intermediaries between the post Office Department and the military in many ways, the military had assigned most of the mail duties to privates and mail who were taking the mail to and from the headquarters. And and that mail moved fairly rapidly. And at sometimes some surprising moments that would be delivered during combat. But we do know that that there times where the walters do and other americans and the civil war letters do note about the changes in their their mail system. But for the most part, theyre theyre fairly open in how they talk about the news of the day. Theyre not censored letters in any way. The soldiers letters are not censored. So anything they off is what theyve selfcensored. We have one more comment and it is that david and rachel are my great great great grandparents and this has been a wonderful discussion to join. So thank you, lynn and tom. Thats wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for coming to our panel this morning