Do They Miss Me at Home?: The Civil War Letters of William McKnight, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry

Introduction

 1 Introduction During the Civil War, letters were among the few connections to home that soldiers had; their importance increased as the war advanced and troops found themselves farther from family and friends.1 Soldiers constantly complained of not receiving “enough letters,” and one soldier wrote, “You can have no idea what a blessing letters from home are to the men in camp. They make us better men, better soldiers.”2 Today, such correspondence offers “authentic, unfiltered glimpses of the realities of war,” and with “careful editing, collected letters provide fascinating sources of information about the people and the times of the Civil War.”3 Thwarting loneliness and homesickness, Civil War letters were mailed in large numbers. On the “Union side, 45,000 were sent daily via Washington to members of the Eastern armies and an equal number went off from soldiers to those at home. Ninety thousand more passed daily via Louisville for and from soldiers in the Western armies.”4 Several accounts indicate that “ordinary soldiers were perhaps the most prolific writers.”5 Most “soldiers spent their free time writing letters home, detailing their reactions to their new surroundings, politics, and emotions.”6 Indeed, numberless soldiers filled their “journals, their letters home, and their memoirs with the moral values they knew to be at issue in the conflict between North and South: manliness, godliness, duty, [and] honor.”7 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. introduction  2 The McKnight Collection of Civil War Letters William McKnight of Langsville, Ohio, was one such common soldier who contributed to the thousands of letters sent daily. McKnight was a member of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry (OVC) from September 1862 until William McKnight of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Courtesy of Ruth Hayth. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Introduction  3 his death in June 1864. During his time in the service, McKnight penned dozens of letters, primarily to his wife, Samaria. McKnight’s writings reveal his viewpoints, emotions, and thoughts—the human side of the Civil War.8 In total, there are 108 letters in the collection. The vast majority are from William to Samaria, whom he also refers to as “Mary” and “Molly.”9 The letters are extremely accurate.10 McKnight mentions dozens of battles, dates, people , and places, and his letters closely follow the official record (OR) and the accounts that deal specifically with Ohio and the Seventh—Whitlaw Reid’s two-volume Ohio in the War (1895a; 1895b) and R. C. Rankin’s History of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry (1881). The remaining correspondence is primarily from Samaria to William and from other family members to William (see appendix A).11 The pervasiveness of loneliness, suffered by thousands of soldiers, is documented in histories by Civil War scholars such as Gary Gallagher (Gallagher et al. 2003), Gerald Linderman (1987), and Steven Woodworth (1996). In one of his first letters home, McKnight confesses, “I had to get up and leave the table to hide my tears warm tears of love for you and the little ones at home.”12 On November 26, 1862, McKnight remarks that his “mind is constantly turning homewards.”13 In one of the last letters before he is killed in action, McKnight expresses his homesickness and notes, “if I owned this whole State I would give it to be with you and this war at an end so that we might never more be separated.”14 Coupled with McKnight’s loneliness is his desire to receive a “likeness.” Historian Andrew Carroll states that “what makes the letters so powerful is not only the history they record but also the common humanity they reveal ”; part of this humanity is reflected in the “homesickness felt by Civil War soldiers who thanked their sweethearts for sending them ‘likenesses.’”15 On January 9, 1863, McKnight writes to Samaria, “I keep your likeness in my Pocket al the time and it is great comfort to look at your sweet face. Samaria McKnight, Rutland Township , Meigs County, Ohio. Courtesy of Ruth Hayth. You are reading copyrighted material published by...