Search

Correspondence of the Athey family of Tyler County, West Virginia, consisting primarily of ten letters written from Dudley and Austin Athey, brothers who served in the 11th West Virginia Infantry Regiment from 1863 to 1865 (Folder 1). In letters to their siblings and parents at home, the Atheys describe their desire to visit home; their location on railroads or in camps at New Creek and Parkersburg, West Virginia; their health; and their desire to receive more letters from home. Letters from family members at home chiefly contain news about the family's farm and harvest. Most of the letters are brief and notable for phonetic spelling. One letter to the Athey family from another member of the 11th West Virginia documents the regiment's position in Deep Bottom, Virginia, in January 1865 and describes the cold weather, winter quarters, African American troops, the interaction between Confederate and Union pickets, and artillery fire. There is also an 1869 letter written by a Methodist circuit rider, Loren Stewart, concerning his work around Spencer following the Civil War.

Forty-nine letters of Ephraim W. Frost of Co J., 116th Reg, Ohio Vol Inf. Frost, who lived in Coolville, Ohio, near Parkersburg, was stationed at Moorefield, Martinsburg, near Romney, Winchester and Sleepy Creek in Morgan County, where his Reg. was guarding the B & O. The letters comment on fighting in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 around Woodstock, mention of McNeill, Imboden, and Mosby, and contain much on camp life in the eastern panhandle area. Frost was wounded near Piedmont in May 1864 and died at Annapolis, Maryland in January 1865.