By James I. Robertson Jr.
Excess of an insignificant documentation of the horrors and banality of the Civil conflict, John Preston Sheffey’s literate or even macabrely witty writings reveal his ardor for conflict, his love of his domestic kingdom of Virginia, and his ardour in waging a such a lot onerous and suspenseful crusade: to win Josephine Spiller of Wytheville, Virginia, as his spouse. fantastically edited by means of James I. Robertson, Jr., Sheffey’s letters are the 1st released correspondence through a member of the eighth Virginia Cavalry. They replicate the ever present risks of conflict and a soldier’s poignant makes an attempt to soothe a woman’s fears of committing to a guy engaged faraway from domestic within the dire fight for the Confederacy.
A local of Marion, Virginia, Sheffey offers a useful photograph of socio-military affairs within the missed western and southwestern areas of the nation. Too mountainous to be neutralized by means of Union army efforts, southwest Virginia’s groups harbored assets of coal, lead, and salt in addition to the one rail line connecting Richmond and the Western theater of the war—all of which have been necessary to any risk of good fortune for the Confederacy. Sheffey’s mixture of intimate minute-to-minute, daily recording and bigger perception into the dynamics of fellows, terrain, provides, and protocol make this assortment special.
Displaying an impressive diversity in his fascinating letters, Sheffey mentioned every thing from Greek monsters of mythology to English poets of the 16th century. He was once in a position to pining to Josephine, "And nonetheless you won't write. . . . i'm going to give up myself to the Yankees or incurable blues," and of describing a wounded Union soldier who "lived for greater than an afternoon together with his brains shot out, conclusive proof that they could get alongside nearly besides with out [brains] as with them." Sheffey’s greater than 90 letters are a novel resource of curiosity for revealing the paradoxes and tragedies of remoted yet very important Civil struggle skirmishes in southwest Virginia.
Read or Download Soldier of Southwestern Virginia: The Civil War Letters of Captain John Preston Sheffey PDF
Similar essays & correspondence books
D. H. Lawrence: Late Essays and Articles (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence)
D. H. Lawrence frequently wrote for newspapers in his final years not just simply because he wanted the cash, yet simply because he loved generating brief articles on the prompting of editors. He additionally wrote mammoth essays equivalent to the contentious creation to his personal quantity of work and the hugely arguable Pornography and Obscenity.
Humans—there's no realizing them, and no facing them both. or perhaps their planet. Pity the terrible extraterrestrial beings, whose shape-changing skill should still allow them to take over the planet Earth ahead of the people even be aware of they're there—if it were not for all that omnipresent toxins. Or ponder one other set of invaders, from a planet the place the elements is often gentle and the altering of the seasons is not often seen.
The Letters of George Santayana, Book 2: 1910-1920
Because the first collection of George Santayana's letters used to be released in 1955, almost immediately after his demise, many extra letters were positioned. The Works of George Santayana, quantity V, brings jointly a complete of greater than 3,000 letters. The quantity is split chronologically into 8 books of approximately similar size.
Epistolary Encounters in Neo-Victorian Fiction: Diaries and Letters
Neo-Victorian writers invoke conflicting viewpoints in diaries, letters, and so on. to creatively retrace the previous in fragmentary and contradictory methods. This ebook explores the complicated wishes occupied with epistolary discoveries of 'hidden' Victorians, supplying new perception into the artistic synthesising of severe idea in the neo-Victorian novel.
Additional resources for Soldier of Southwestern Virginia: The Civil War Letters of Captain John Preston Sheffey
Sample text
Mitchell’s Map10 locates both watering places in Alleghany. W. of us, Capt. , Col. , Col. 12 We belong to the 2nd Regt. but are under the immediate command of Major Thorburn,13 who is one of the most glorious little fellows in the world, a gentleman in every sense of the term. Genial, gallant, gifted and experienced, under him our pathway to high honor and fame will be broad and straight. He is exceedingly anxious that Rosecrantz’s14 battery of seven guns, formerly McClellan’s, the only Yankee battery of any considerable strength now in Western Virginia, should be taken by his cavalry, and when he orders it we will certainly take it.
Has fought long and well with the sword of the Spirit. Will try now what virtue there is in more carnal weapons. Says he is a good fencer and we will try and find him plenty of opportunities for practice. I have written hastily and with a very bad pen but bad writing is excusable in a soldier. The company of Mounted Rifles here, under Capt. Jones54 —a magnificent company—are very anxious that the Smyth Dragoons should be thrown with them. 55 Meanwhile, we must obey the order of Col. 56 53. J. J. McMahan, a Presbyterian cleric, entered Confederate service as chaplain of the 51st Virginia Infantry, another unit recruited in southwestern Virginia.
I will be in Wytheville Tuesday night at nine o’clock if I can possibly get off from here. I will return that same night. A week without seeing you seems an age to me. I know not what I shall do when I am called away into active service. There is every probability now that we will be quartered here or at Wytheville for some months, and I cannot tell you how much I hope that you will not defer our marriage. I have loved you so long and, which may sound silly to you but is nevertheless true, have suffered so much through the years when I looked upon you as lost to me forever, that I have now, morning, noon and night, but one desire, and that is to be able to call you mine, mine forever, as in heart at least, I have, it seems to me, always been yours.