Lightfoot Paper, 1865

(Manuscript Collection #12)

Title:	Lightfoot Paper
Repository:	ECU Manuscript Collection
Languages:	English
Abstract:	Letter (1865) from a pro-Union Southern woman in Georgia to her sister living in the North.
Extent:	0.055 Cubic feet, 1 item, photocopy of letter.

Accessions Information

September 25, 1967, 1 item (photocopy); Letter written from Gainesville, Georgia, May 28, 1865. Loaned for copying May, 1966, by Miss Jean Lightfoot, Raleigh, N.C.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions

Copyright Notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Preferred Citation

Lightfoot Paper (#12), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

Acquisition Information

• Loaned by Miss Jean Lightfoot

Processing Information

• Processed by D. Lennon, September 1967

• Encoded by Apex Data Services

This letter, written to a sister living in the North, reflects the views of a pro-Union woman residing in Gainesville, Georgia, at the close of the Civil War. She tells of the suffering in the South due to the blockade and to the demands of returning soldiers. Among the subjects discussed in the letter are losses by Southerners who invested in Confederate bonds, efforts of ladies in preparing clothes for soldiers and her refusal to participate in this activity, murder of Union prisoners by the home guard, plans of neighbors to move to Mexico, lack of new clothes as a result of the war, and family news. The writer, identified only as "Mitt," expresses her pleasure at the outcome of the war and speculates as to whether slaves would actually be freed and Southern land confiscated.