Yes, those letters are really sad; all the more so because the man didn't want any part of the war. He just wanted to be left alone to care for his family and farm his little piece of land -- not too much for any American to ask for. But, events beyond his control determined his fate, and that of his family. The Civil War was made up of thousands of little tragedies.

When I'm studying a battle, emontionally detached and intellectual, I sometimes pull out some of the letters I have in my files and read them again, just to remind myself that the battle I'm studying wasn't detached and unemotional for those men involved in the fighting. Robert E. Lee summed it up best, "It is well war is so terrible, we should get too fond of it."