Families in the 21st century connect with family by way of email, phone calls, and the internet. However, back during the Civil War, there were only one main way to connect to loved ones: Letters. Sending letters or keeping a journal to send to family members was the only connection to tell them of your soldier life. In this section, we’ll explore letters and bring history back to life. Most of the letters will be shown on “parchment” paper. It was how letters were sent back in the day, and mostly down by pencil.
Some of the letters are hard to read, but hopefully it can be deciphered. Most of the letters talked about every day life within their marching duties, or the battles that they were involved in. However, some of the letters to family members talked about the more “relaxing” times that they witnessed.
On January 28th, 1863, there was a large snowstorm that affected areas of northern Virginia. More than two feet of snow covered a large contingent of Confederate troops camped in Virginia’s Rappahannock Valley. Rather than complaining about the cold weather, the 1st and 4th Texas Infantry put their military training to work. The next morning, they launched a major snowball offensive against their comrades in the 5th Texas Infantry, who somehow repelled their attackers before deciding to join them in a snow assault on the 3rd Arkansas Infantry, which surrendered quickly beneath a slushy barrage. The conquered Arkansans joined forces with the victors, and together they set out to pelt the encampment of the nearby Georgia Brigade.
After hours of this melee, the Texas Brigade apparently won a Pyrrhic victory in which many soldiers sustained slight injuries. In response to the upheaval and the disfigurement of a few troops, General James Longstreet, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, reportedly banned snowball fighting.