Photo of the Day

It is July 16, 1863.

John Crawford is writing to his wife, Martha,

from a Confederate hospital in Winchester, Virginia,

where he is recovering from an illness contracted during the

Confederate retreat from Gettysburg.

Chimborazo Hospital, a 5000-bed Confederate military facility in Richmond. More than 77,000 men were treated there during the war. Enslaved people comprised much of the non-medical staff.

John grew up in central Mississippi

amid large cotton plantations worked by enslaved labor

and small family farms.

Enslaved women pick cotton.

He enlisted in the 16th Mississippi Infantry,

a part of Confederate General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia,

six months ago.

Battle casualties crowd a field hospital in Virginia, June 1862.

[The grammatical and spelling errors in the letter are John’s.]

“Dear wife

I seat my self down to let you know that I am not well at present

but I hope those few lines will find you and family well.

I taken the fever in a few days after the gettysburg fight.

Lee’s Army of Nortern Virginia began its retreat from Gettysburg on July 4, 1863, after failing to defeat the Union Army at Gettysburg. Above, a depiction of the retreating Confederates.

wee left about dark an march all night.

the mud an water was almost needeep

an then wee stop the nesct day and ladown in the water

and I taken the fever and was sent to wincheser.

but I hope it waunt last long.

the hardship wee have to go threw is enough to kill a mud turple.

Lee’s army crosses the Potomac River.

I don’t know any thing about the ridgement at this time.

they have had a nother battle since I left them but I don’t how they made it.

I cant hear from them.

news reach hear that vicksburg has gon up the spout.

if it has wee had just as well quit and give up the confedracy

The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863, was the first major battle in which John participated.

I don’t know that I have any thing more of any importance to write.

I have no idy the war will end in the next five year to come.

direct you letters to richmond wee can get them beter from ther

than any wher else.

Women of the Confederacy.

I don’t know wher you can read this or not.

I am so week my hands trembles so bad so I will close by saing

I remain your loving husband untel death.

fare well for this time”

***

Private Silas H. Shirley, a soldier in the 16th Mississippi.

In ten more months, John will be killed in action, leaving Martha and four children behind.

A poem he had written to Martha in April:

“how long sometimes a day appears
and weeks how long are they
months moves along as if the years
would never pass away”

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda