This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 22, 2011 - The "Love letters" being shared by the Missouri History Museum may not have the drama of, say, a Civil War battle re-enactment, but we're captivated by the romance between a St. Louis soldier and his beloved "dear girl" unfolding on the "History Happens Here" blog.
Here's a sample of the lovely prose, written by new Union recruit James E. Love to his sweetheart Molly Wilson, as he leaves the city in June 1861:
"We are at present near St. Charles & en route for Jefferson City. I shall write you again from there at present I have only time to say how much I love you. All my hopes of Heaven & earth depend on you -- I have tried to act through life so that neither my own, or my adopted country need be ashamed of me -- I have a double incentive now!, & with a little advice from you, I will try to never give you cause to Blush for me --
"I hope & pray to return safe & soon -- believe me ever truly yours in thought, word & deed."
(Swoon.)
Love faithfully wrote to Molly throughout the war and his letters provide an intimate first-hand account of his military experiences, as well as his personal struggles with missing -- and worrying about -- his fiance and family back home.
As part of the commemorations noting the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the History Museum blog is publishing each Love letter 150 years from the day it was written. The series kicked off in June and will run through early 2015, but readers can easily catch up on the website. The collection includes 170 letters and covers almost the entire length of the war.
Associate archivist Molly Kodner, who was introduced to the collection when she was an intern at the museum in the late 1990s, admits that she was initially taken by the letters because she shares the name of Love's fiance. She says the letters are interesting not only for the details shared about Army life but also because they chronicle a romance that translates well, decades later.
"There are so many letters from this one soldier to one person that you really get to know his thoughts and feelings about the war, and you get to know a lot about the relationship between the two of them,'' Kodner said.
The series is also a reminder of a time when handwritten letters were the only connection between two people separated by war.
"This was her only way of finding out what he was doing. He couldn't send an email or talk to her on Skype,'' said Kodner who Tweets when she posts a new letter.
The collection has no letters from Molly, so readers are left to piece together her thoughts through her fiance's letters.
Will this war-weary St. Louis soldier eventually make it home to his beloved "dear girl"?
Kodner won't say because that would spoil the drama. (And so we won't explain how this collection of letters eventually found its way to the museum's archives.)
In the meantime, readers seem to be enjoying the project, judging by the comments on the website.
"Very good stuff!!!!" wrote one poster.
While those words pale by comparison to the poetic prose of James E. Love, we share the sentiment. This is very good stuff, indeed.
The Civil War Lovebirds
James E. Love was an Irish immigrant born in 1830, in County Antrim, Ireland, who came to the United States in 1849. He was a grocer in St. Louis who enlisted to fight for the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War. Love was a sergeant in Company D, 5th U.S. Reserve Corps.
Eliza Mary "Molly" Wilson, also an Irish immigrant, was born in County Larn in 1833. After her father's death in 1849, she emigrated to the United States, settling in St. Louis. She and her beloved James were engaged in early 1861, but kept that a secret as he left for war.
