In Their Own Words
December 24, 1862
Civil War Soldier Wrote of Missing Family
A Georgia soldier wrote home, missing his family.
“…It makes me feel sad indeed to compare my condition today and that of last year at this time. I was then at home enjoying the comforts of family. Now [I am] here in the woods in a tent, which life has almost become natural and gets more so every day. … This, indeed, is a hard life. I get extremely anxious at times to see you and children…”
Source: Mills Lane (ed.), “Dear Mother: Don’t grieve about me. If I get killed, I’ll only be dead.”: Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), p. 203.
