The letters were written by a lieutenant in the 6th Kansas Cavalry to his wife back in Kansas, posted from various locations in Missouri and Arkansas. The handwriting is a bear to read, not only because of the deteriorated state of the letters, but because of his unique penmanship -- lots of superfluous flourishes and curlicues.
The letters I've transcribed are fairly mundane until the regiment arrived in Arkansas. The lieutenant comes across as an uncompromising, radical abolitionist, who looked forward to marching to Arkansas and bringing the wrath of God down on the "secesh". And did he ever. The incidents he relates to his wife range from confiscating livestock and food from civilians, to burning homes, barns, outbuildings and crops, to outright theft, torture and murder. His men used knives on men and women alike to force them to reveal the location of valuables. He says nothing about whether or not he ordered his men to engage in these acts, or whether he was present and witnessed the acts, but he calmly relates the incidents. He writes like he's talking about a gang of unruly schoolboys engaged in pranks. You can almost hear him chuckling as he writes about his little scamps castrating an old man, or slicing off a woman's breast. One of the first things that struck me as I read his letters was, what sort of man would write his wife about things like that?
Anyway, as I began transcribing the letters, and recognized their unique story, I made a tactical error when I told the gentleman how valuable these letters were. The cash register in his mind went "ka-ching!" so I did some fast damage control and told him that I was referring to their purely historical value. I suggested that he publish them, either as a stand-alone vignette of the war, or as part of a regimental history.
When I sent him my transcriptions of two particularly graphic letters, he started acting a little squirrelley. Though he's never said so, I get the impression that the lieutenant is an ancestor of him or his wife. He said that he'd heard that the "rebels" were even worse than the brave boys in blue. I suggested a reading list to help him put things into context, but I get the feeling that he is very uncomfortable about the gallant lieutenant's letters.
Chuck, I don't know how this will all turn out in the end, but whether or not these letters ever get published (which I am beginning to doubt), I am going to prevail upon him to give a copy of them to a public archives so that researchers can access them -- a university, or library.
I did some soul-searching about whether or not to discuss these letters on the board, since the gentleman asked me to keep things on the Q.T. until he decided what to do with them. I take my promises very seriously -- until this post I've never disclosed the fact that you had sent me some 6th Kansas letters, but never said whether or not I could discuss them -- but it's driving me batty having the lieutenant's letters at my fingertips, and having to wait for the guy to make the next move. I still have a few more letters to transcribe, after which I assume he'll make a decision on how to deal with them.
I will keep you posted if anything further develops.