Our Valentine-themed series is coming to a close. We hope you have enjoyed reading some of these love letters from February 1862. Have a great weekend!
Camp Porter, Virginia,
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1862.
Dear Cousin L.: —
“Norton, ‘Putty’ has brought you a valentine this time, I’ll warrant,” said one of my messmates, as I entered the tent last night and flung down my axe (I had been out on fatigue duty all day, making a government road to Washington, for the old roads are impassable on account of the mud). “Well, let me look at it,” said I, and he handed me your letter of the 7th. It was not a valentine, but it pleased me much more than one of those sentimental things would have done.
– Letter from Oliver Wilcox Norton, February 11, 1862 –
Source: Norton, Oliver Wilcox, “Letter from Oliver Wilcox Norton, February 11, 1862,” in Army Letters, 1861-1865 : Being Extracts from Private Letters to Relatives and Friends from a Soldier in the Field during the Late Civil War, with an Appendix Containing Copies of Some Official Documents, Papers and Addresses of Later Date (Chicago: O.L. Deming, 1903).
Image Source: Harper’s Weekly, June 13 1863.
