Letter from a woman to her brother in the army

Nancy Dowis

In this letter to her brother S.J. Steele, a Union soldier, Nancy Steele Dowis tells him of all her anxiety for family members, both those in the army and those sick at home.

Lynn Camp Ky
At home Mar 9 1862
Dear Brother,
With much anxiety -- I assume the present appearance to write to you that you may know that I am well and my family also.

We live here in a land of distress and war. There is now an Army stationed in this County and a battle expected at Cumberland Gap. My oldest son is in the union Army and will be in the battle when it comes Oh! what distress. A great many of our relations are also in the same regiment (7th Ky.)

I am very anxious to know what the times really are in your country. I cant rely on the papers for news. There seems to be great distress in your country. You must write to me and let me know all about the times there. Mother is very ill. she has been at the point of death for a long time. I believe she is stricken with palsy. She was perfectly useless in every respect -- but is now getting a little better so that she can talk a little, but the left side of her body is perfectly paralized. She will never get over it.

The rebels are pretty well cleaned out of Kentucky and I hope the game is about played out with them. There is a great deal of sickness in County now and a good many deaths also. Bill Dowis is dead. Several others also that you know. I lost my youngest son by accident. He volunteered in the service and by accident shot himself and died away from home. I have now but three children. Tell Sam Mitchell if he is at your house that his folks are all well & Bob is in the Army. Brother Speed is in the Army also. Be sure to write.
Your sister,
Nancy

Letter from Nancy Steele Dowis to her brother S.J. Steele. She was the mother of Gale Dowis.
15 February 1998 Margy Miles

Source from : http://www.ket.org/civilwar/athome.html

The above extract is a short letter written by Nancy Steele Dowis to her brother S.J. Steele. After reading through the letter, I can infer that people living in the times of the America Civil War didn’t have a good time, be it physical conditions or mental distress.

From the very first line, I can already infer that she was very anxious about the situation of the war. “With much anxiety -- I assume the present appearance to write to you that you may know that I am well and my family also.” The way she phrase the sentence seems to show that there was turmoil in the country and that she was lucky to be alive and could write a letter to her brother. From all these evidence, I could clearly say that people at that time actually had a bad feeling for the war, and a very pessimistic attitude. If the writer wasn’t afraid that she might be killed in the war, she could have used a more nationalistic tone, like “I’m writing to tell you that my family and I are well. You need not worry because I believe the Union army will protect us from harm.” But, the very fact that she started of the letter with the phrase “With much anxiety” proves it otherwise. The people actually had no confidence in the victory of the war and the security of themselves, hence explaining the use of the word “anxiety”.

Secondly, the second paragraph very clearly shows the state of the people. The second paragraph was started off immediately by saying “We live here in a land of distress and war”. This confirms the elaboration in my previous paragraph when I said the people were afraid and anxious of the war. The sheer description of the state of the place Nancy lives in could also effectively tell us the state the country was in. “distress” was used. This word could be very general in terms of description. Nancy could be describing the deaths, the shortage of food or the condition the place she was living in. However, in the following lines, she talked about her oldest son in the Union army which was going to battle. At the end of that line, she used the word distress again. “My oldest son is in the union Army and will be in the battle when it comes Oh! what distress.”

Thirdly, Nancy started pouring out all the sadness, distress and helplessness in her. “Bill Dowis is dead. Several others also that you know. I lost my youngest son by accident. He volunteered in the service and by accident shot himself and died away from home. I have now but three children.” This evidence really showed what the people at that time went through. The children they lost, the friends they lost, all in the war. The people must have felt very unsecured and no confidence in the war.

In conclusion, I can say that the some people actually didn’t have a good feeling for the war because they lost too many friends and family members due to the war. They were also probably afraid of their own death. However, some people actually volunteered to fight in the war like Nancy’s youngest son. This, showed the very “loyal” attitude some people had.

Tan Yong Yao (2p3-26)