[Manuscript Letter Archive Comprised of Correspondence Between Union Telegraph Operator Richmond Smith and His Future Wife Eliza Gorin on the Home Front in Illinois]

[Mainly Tennessee, Georgia, and Texas, 1866. Very good plus.. Twenty-one autograph letters, signed, totaling [104]pp. and approximately 11,000 words, most with original transmittal envelopes, plus a few manuscript telegraph documents and several later family letters. Original mailing folds, minor overall wear. Highly readable. An informative collection of over twenty Civil War-date, and near war-date, manuscript letters exchanged between Union telegraph operator, Richmond Smith (1838-1891) and his sweetheart and future wife Eliza White Gorin (1843-1923) of Washington, Tazewell County, Illinois. Twenty of the letters date between February 12, 1864 and July 10, 1865, covering most of the time Smith was enlisted in the Army and providing a rare chance to read both sides of a given correspondence during the war. Smith sent letters home to Eliza while stationed in Nashville, Atlanta, and Galveston, with a couple sent during a side trip to New York. Richmond and Eliza married on August 10, 1865, shortly after Smith's enlistment ended and he returned home to engage in business in Illinois and eventually New York.

Naturally, Smith and Gorin's letters contain much romantic interchange (their mutual attraction, their anxieties, the nature of their possible union and future, etc.), as well as details regarding their health and daily activities and more. Smith's letters also cover much of importance regarding his service in the Deep South and Trans-Mississippi Southwest during the war. Smith details battle news, troop movements, his own movements with regard to his telegraphic work, encounters with southern locals, the death of General McPherson, General Sherman's March to the Sea through Atlanta, the value of Union and Confederate currency, the reception of Union troops in Galveston just following the war (and right after Juneteenth), and much more.

The letters open in February 1864 when Smith was stationed in Nashville. Here, he comments that his unit is on the move: "I go to Johnsonville tomorrow to attend to the duties there for two or three days.... The country south of us to Mobile is being abandoned by the Rebels and as quickly occupied by our troops. We may have to extend our lines to Mobile through Miss. and Ala. also to Memphis." Another letter from Nashville provides further war content: "Genl McPhersons remains passed through the city today - a more sad scene I think I never witnessed. The procession was over a mile long composed of Infantry, Cavalry & Artillery. His beautiful horse following the hearse through the procession with the General's boots & spurs strapped on the saddle. It looked the very personification of loneliness." Smith also informs Eliza of a possible new position "assuming charge of all the business (telegraphic) with the Army of the Cumberland" which he feels duty bound to accept. Smith next writes from Chattahoochie Bridge, Tennessee on August 28, 1864, where he reports on Sherman's March and local skirmishes: "Gen. Sherman moved or rather commenced moving his army of about 75,000 men to the south of Atlanta at 9 o'clock Thursday morning.... Yesterday noon while eating our dinner we heard heavy firing and could see the smoke &c about five miles distant. The rebels made an attempt to capture one of our wagon trains but were driven off. Our forces here number about 15,000 and strongly entrenched on both sides of the river."

In his first letter from Atlanta on September 7, Smith writes about seeing a sobering local scene: "I have one thing continually before my eyes when I look out of the window that reminds me of one great evil of our country. It is a building made for a slave pen fronting our office built exactly like a large jail with its large doors, barred windows &c." He also details his new appointment involving "the management of the lines between this city and Chattanooga - a distance of about 145 miles and two wires on the route." This letter is also particularly noteworthy for Smith's description of General Sherman's recent activity: "Gen. Sherman has issued an order to the citizens of Atlanta expelling one and all from the city, advising our Union friends to go north and rebels to go south. It looks cruel in the extreme yet I can feel but that the General is right. His own management of affairs so far has been successful & we can only let him have his own way believing that he is equal to the wants of the people." Though he is coy about his assignment and exact movements, Smith goes into further detail about Sherman's treatment of Atlanta in his next letter of October 3: "It is contraband were I to tell you where I am going - I would tell you where Gen. Sherman and his army of 50,000 are going & if the Rebs should capture the letter then it might be serious.... Atlanta will be left a heap of smoking ruins. Perhaps a few residences may be spared but they will be few & scattering. All the damage that can be done the Confederacy will certainly be done. Our path through the country will be easily traced. Landmark will be left behind us that it will take years to erase. I know the intentions of the commanding Genl too well to doubt it and if it does not produce a sensation in the Confederacy I am sadly mistaken."

Smith's letters next commence from New York City where he spent part of January 1865, partially in pursuit of future business opportunities. While in New York, Smith visits numerous notable New York families, details the scene he witnesses inside the Stock Exchange, attends parties, the theater, and "negro concerts," and more. He then returns to Nashville by March, where he reports to Eliza that the Rebels "are catching our trains and burning them rather extensively and I expect every day to miss one of your letters in that way."

Smith's final two letters emanate from Galveston, Texas in June and July 1865. In his first letter from Galveston, dated June 28, 1865, Smith remarks on the improvement of the reception Union soldiers are receiving, and his hope for eventual reconciliation between North and South: "The old lady with whom I am now boarding here is feeling better more reconciled to the Yankees as each day passes. Our boys here have generally conducted themselves in a manner deserving a great deal of credit & hence they can have no cause for complaint. The sentiment changes rapidly. When I came here no one could get board in a private family at any price. Now there is no difficulty in obtaining it even with those who have never before done such a thing as take boarders. At first young ladies would not recognize young men of their acquaintance who had gone to work for Uncle Sam. Now they invite them to call as usual. It may be a long time ere the feeling will exist as it once did yet it will come eventually." In his second and last letter from Galveston, Smith writes of eating figs, fishing, and obtaining a long piece of cane "which was washed up from the Central or South American coast." Accompanying Smith's military letters are a few short manuscript notes which appear to be drafts for telegraphs, including a small handwritten form from Galveston regarding railroad travel issued "By command of Maj. Gen. Granger." Union Major General Gordon Granger took command of Texas following the end of the war; among his most famous actions was his issuance of General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, known today as the Juneteenth order.

In addition to Smith's letters, the present archive includes six letters by Eliza. Her letters are chock full of home front news regarding numerous family, friends, and other characters in Illinois, with mentions of the burials of various local soldiers, her deep feelings for Smith, Lincoln's election in 1864, the prospect of living in the South with Smith following the war, and much more. In her May 24, 1865 letter, Eliza writes of her specific activities upon a visit by a friend: "calling, visiting, walking, talking, laughing, reading, washing, &c & c &c &c." Smith and Eliza's correspondence include some crosswritten letters and one in which Smith writes additional text upside down in the spaces between the lines of the first page of one letter.

A wonderful collection of letters written between two articulate but seemingly insecure lovers caught in the middle of hard times during the Civil War, with great research potential. (Inventory #: 5258)