Josiah H. and William A. Cunningham Letters, PC.1899

Most of the eight letters in this collection written during 1861 were from Josiah H. Cunningham, Camp Beauregard, to his sister, Mary E. Cunningham. There is one letter from R. [Robert] D. Grisham, also encamped at Camp Beauregard. Toward the end of the year Josiah wrote that letters be addressed to him at Centerville, Fairfax County, Va. The last letter from Josiah in 1861, dated 27 Decemeber, was written about five miles from Mannassas. Filled with some references to William and details of interest to the family, the letter includes reports of the weather, winter clothing matters ("we have all got overcoats but thay is toar"), his apparent newly acquired ability to cook good biscuits, desire for tobacco, etc.

Contains some twenty-one letters with two letters together, 30 August 1863. During 1863 Josiah and William were captured at Beverly Ford, Va. on 9 June. On the 11th a Daniel B. Duke wrote their father an account of the action and his sons' status. Though William was wounded, the tone of the letter was resassuring. He respectually concluded with his trust and hope "it will not be long before William and Joe will return back to the company for they are great mist [sic] their is no braver boys in the Southern army than they are." Josiah subsequently wrote home several consoling letters. The brothers were exchanged at City Point 30 June. On 16 September Josiah wrote his father from Orange Court House, including several references to injuries, deaths, and a report that his own horse was shot in the right foreleg, and his fear that he will have to leave him if his regiment should have to leave in the next days. Toward the end of the letter, Josiah wrote that "I am looking for the big battle now every day but I am in hopes it will not come." A month later Josiah was wounded in action near Manassas on 15 October and died of his wounds the next day. Robert D. Grisham/Grissom wrote Mr. Cunningham that it was his "unhappy lot to inform him" of this circumstance and to care until further word for items saved from the battlefield: an "overcoat oil cloth pocket book a knife" along with some money. The letter also informed the father that Josiah was buried at Culpeper County Court House, and alluded to a doctor who was with him at his death. A letter of 14 December to "Dear Sister" from Turner[?] make reference to Josiah's family's ongoing grief and quest for unanswered questions, but reports that he cannot find out what doctor was with him when he died, nor the sergeant in charge of the ambulance train. He laments that "I wish I could give Mrs. Cunninhgam ... Satisfaction about his death. I dont think She aught [sic] to greave [sic]...he requested that non of his folks Should not greave after him he was prepared for a better world than this."

The indicates that William was present or accounted for through December of 1864. This collection contains three letters of 1865, written 5 and 22 February and 3 March by William to his sister and to his father and mother respectively. His war-weariness is expressed directly in statements such as "I hope the time is not far distant when this old war will stop and I must think it will terminate soon." The last letter references Daniel Duke going back home and William's more mundane hope that Daniel will return with some of his requests, including envelopes, a pipe, and particularly clothing: pants, gloves, a shirt, drawers, for the latter two are "not fit to ware [sic] when we get them." The letters were marked as follows: 5 February (Hickford, Va.), 22 February (Camp 1st N.C. Cavalry), and 3 March (Camp. 1st N.C. Cavalry near Stanley Creek),