A Breath of Fresh Air After the Storm: A Soldier’s Letter Home

“The war is Over thank god and peace rains in Our land”

Pull up a chair, friends, and take a look at this treasure I’ve found. It’s a letter from just after the Civil War, written on paper that’s turned the color of a dried corn husk. It’s got a deep fold right through the center where it was likely kept safe for years, and the ink has faded to a soft, earthy brown. If you look closely at the top corner, you can even see a little embossed seal, a tiny mark of quality from a time long ago. It’s a bit fragile, but the words still reach out to us as clear as day.

Our mystery writer was a soldier who spent eighteen months in the thick of things, and he starts his letter with a deep sigh of relief that the ‘storm of war’ has finally passed. He speaks with such pride about following the ‘old flage’ and his hope that all the returning boys will find ways to be useful to their neighbors and help build the country back up. It’s a real heart-warmer to hear him say he doesn’t regret his service one bit, even though it was a lesson he’d never forget. He reminds us that even after the darkest times, folks can still find the courage to look forward.

But life wasn’t all looking backward! He tells a grand tale about a wealthy acquaintance named Old Andrew Gwinn, who’d come out to visit from Illinois. He has a bit of a chuckle about Old Andrew’s loud way of talking—saying you could hear him from the top of a mountain on a still morning—but he sure was impressed by the man’s success. Gwinn owned three thousand acres and was selling cattle for seventy dollars a head, which was a small fortune back then! Our friend was so taken with the beauty of the ‘western country’ that he was trying to convince his folks to sell out and join him, promising the land in Illinois was so pretty it would make your eyes water just to look at it.

When we read a letter like this today, it’s a beautiful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. It captures that exact moment in our history when the nation began to heal and dream again. It tells us that peace isn’t just the end of a fight; it’s the beginning of a new chapter, whether that’s a young man like Wallace teaching fifty scholars in a winter schoolhouse or a veteran looking toward a green horizon with hope. It’s a little piece of our shared story that reminds us we’ve always known how to start over and build something better.

Original Transcription

Thair Seems To quit[e] a calm after
The Storm of war we have passed Through
The war is Over thank god and peace rains
in Our land The Soldiers have got hom
and returned To Thair diperant Ocupations
Of life and I hope That They may all make
Them Selves useful To society In Building
up Our Country That has Just emerged from
a Blooddy war which will neve be forgotten
in history I Spent 18 months in the Servis
of my Country which I dont regret it was
a lesson To me which I will never forget I followed
The old flage Through and The same old flage
floats To the breaze and I Think will so
long as Tim will last and I Think treason
will be made Odious, well a nough of This
Every Thing is moveing along after The
Old fashion I Beleave Old Andrew
Gwinn was Out To See us This
winter he lives in Washington. Co
Ill. A. J. Gwinn was with him
Old Andrew looks harty

The worst That I Could Sa
about him his speach is Bad
Take me as I mean not as I Say
I Suppose That you have heard
him Talk if you have not Just
get uppon One of Them mountains
Som Still morning and I Think
you will hear him he is rich
he ouns Three Thousand akers of
land he Sold One hundred
head of Cattle last fall at
Seventy Dollars a head That
is The way To make money
I Think you had better Sell out
and Com Back To Our western
Country if you will Com I will
Take you Out To Ill where
you will see som of The pettys
land in the world it will make
your eyes water To look at it
Wallace is teaching School This
winter he has about fifty scolars