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The Numa Barned papers consist of letters home written while Barned was serving with the 73rd Pennsylvania Infantry in a variety of campaigns.

Although Numa Barned's letters are few, many of them are very valuable because of the effort that he put into them. Unlike many of his fellow soldiers, Barned did not write simply a succession of one-liners to fill out a page. Rather, he stays on a subject for a full paragraph, viewing it from various angles, philosophizing, and fleshing out his ideas. One excellent letter in this genre is almost entirely occupied with his opinions on African Americans, drawn from a wide range of experiences with them. Another deals with the equivocation inherent in the question of killing another American -- even a rebel -- in battle.

Barned is also good at writing a sequence-of-events letter, such as the report of his capture by Confederates, and his subsequent attempts to escape. He has a head for chronology, as exhibited in his lists of day-to-day positions, apparently reconstructed after the fact. One additional feature of interest is Barned's continued cry of "On to Richmond," long after most soldiers had given the phrase up as another hollow reminder of the ill course of the war.

The Finch diary and letter transcriptions volume contains Thirza Finch's sporadic (or selected) diary entries from 1858-1870, plus copies of letters written to Thirza and other family members from her brothers who served in the Civil War.

The Finch diary and letter transcriptions contains Thirza Finch's sporadic (or selected) diary entries from 1858-1870, plus copies of letters written to Thirza and other family members from her brothers in the service. Unfortunately, in many cases the diary entries and letters appear to be extracts of the originals, rather than true transcriptions, and there is no way to know what has been omitted.

Except for a few entries written during the first year of the war, while Thirza was at Maple Valley, the diary entries are generally brief. These few entries, though, are a powerful record of the uncertainty felt by civilians caught in a war zone, and of the fear and suspicion surrounding the appearance of unknown persons, white or Black, soldier or civilian, northern or southern. The diary is at its best in the few days surrounding the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, when Thirza writes longer pieces, and when events take place at a very rapid pace and the tension reaches its peak. There are also several excellent entries relating her experiences nursing Union soldiers -- semi-voluntarily, it seems -- and hosting "deserters" from the Confederate Army.

Among the correspondence copied into the book, a few of the letters from Thirza's brothers are outstanding, though most are fairly routine, and many have been edited down during the copying process. Particularly noteworthy are a letter written by Richmond following the death of their father, in which he laments the fact that the family have drifted apart, and the series of letters written during the siege of Washington, N.C. Edwin's letters describing a spirited cavalry skirmish at Lacey Springs and the trenches at Petersburg three days before the fall are also excellent, as is his lengthy description of a huge snowball fight between members of three New York regiments and the 1st Vermont Cavalry.

William Wilcoxson served in the 2nd Connecticut Light Artillery Battery during the Civil War. This collection of letters home to his mother and sister document his wartime activities, including a stay at the U.S. General Hospital in Annapolis and later hospitalizations in New Orleans.

All but one of the letters in the Wilcoxson papers were addressed to his mother, Susan M., or sister, Mary Ann, at home in Stratford, Conn. Most of the surviving letters were written from hospitals. They include fine descriptions of the U.S. General Hospital at Annapolis and reflect the feelings and experiences of a strongly pro-Union patient.

Wilcoxson seldom wrote at great length though occasional letters are carried by the emotional power of the events he described. Noteworthy in the collection are the three letters describing the Battle of Gettysburg, those describing the return of prisoners from Belle Isle Prison, and two fine letters describing New Orleans in the days after the assassination of Lincoln.