January 1863 Letter from a New York Home-Front Neighbor to a Union Soldier, Supporting the Emancipation Proclamation and Arming of the Enslaved: “Put arms in the slaves hand and tell them they must fight for there liberty.”
Montgomery, New York: January 23, 1863. Two-page letter measuring 7 ¾ x 12 inches, signed James O. Miller [?]. No envelope. Very good. Item #List3843 A January 1863 letter from James O. Miller of Montgomery, New York, to a young Union soldier whose family Miller knew at home. Miller explains that he sees the soldier’s father pass “every day the brick house,” and that knowing the father “had two smart boys in the army” made him “feel for him and you too.” He had already written once to Henry, apparently the recipient’s younger brother, and now expected a reply from this soldier in turn. The letter has the tone of a village elder or family acquaintance writing into the army: affectionate, moralizing, curious, and full of local news. Miller asks the soldier to tell him his age because, as he writes, “I know you are young but older than Henry,” adding that Henry “will be means of putting in five minutes of his time and it will be something for him to think of for a week.” He also mentions the soldier’s father receiving a letter from Henry, a planned box from home, and local deaths, illness, mud, snow, furloughs, and a soldiers’ benefit at Coldenham. Miller writes only weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, and gives a direct response to Lincoln’s policy: “I think the Presidents Proclamation of Emancipation will work good put arms in the slaves hand and tell them they must fight for there liberty. I think of you soldiers when I go to bed having a good one and you leaving a good one to defend your country and mine to so that your father and me can enjoy our homes & firesides.” He urges the soldier to read the Bible, asks about camp preaching, and wonders whether soldiers keep their guns loaded while hearing sermons: “Read your Bible a portion every day and I suppose it strange to you if I would tell you it will make you a better soldier [...] When you write tell me who your chaplin is, how many sermons he preaches in a week they ought not to be more than 15 minutes long because you have no seats and the enemy may surprise you is one more reason for short sermons and tell me in your letter whether you carry your guns with you and have them loaded when you go to hear the chaplin preach.” Miller also notes local Copperhead or pro-Southern feeling in Montgomery: “There is some southern sympathy with us in Montgomery who wish the south would whip us. There is no such thing in the book we are bound to whip them.” A good Northern home-front Civil War letter, with immediate support for the Emancipation Proclamation, arming enslaved men, local anti-Confederate feeling, religious advice to a soldier, and the informal village networks connecting families at home to soldiers in the field.
Price: $450.00