Title: Letter from Gainesville, Ga., woman to her sister, 28 May 1865

Identifier: 0012-b1-fa   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/13849)

Description: 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 enslaved people would actually be freed and Southern land confiscated.