This archive of letters was purchased by an acquaintance of mine who requested that I transcribe the letters and preserve the content for the benefit of historians and family history researchers. As such, he authorized me to post them on this public blog. There are 21 letters written by Silas Townsend in the archive — five while he served in the 29th Massachusetts Infantry and the remainder while he served in the 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry.
I have organized the material into four chapters:
1 — If I Was Only to Home (May-August, 1862)
2 — In Such a Lonesome Hole (March-July, 1864)
3 — I Mean to Look Out for Myself (August-December, 1864)
4 — She Whips Them Beyond All Reason (January-February, 1865)
"They will get but little duty out of me" 