One who wrote home was apprenticed as a surveyor at age 16 and was a newspaper editor at the time of his enlistment. Another was a medical doctor although he enlisted as a pvt.
One who could not write was a sharecropper, I refer to him as a white slave. All of my surname of Holcombe were farmers until the war. Each had 8 to 13 children in order to have more farmhands, then they couldn't afford to feed them, none of them had any "schooling". Their widows signed the pension applications with an "X". I would like to ask one of them what they were fighting for. Of all my relatives I have researched for both sides, geography determined the side they fought for. Except maybe the ones in Kentucky. I recently found one who was city treasurer of Atlanta at the start of the war and I have written proof he was against sucession. Bet he was popular around city hall
Bet the rate isn't much better than that now.
Good to hear from you Cuz. - Ken