Did civil war soldiers write letters?

Answer 1

Yes. This was just about the only way they had of keeping in touch with the people at home. Many Civil War companies on both sides were enlisted of men all from the same town, so letters to or from home often contained news of interest to other men or their families back home. Men who could not read or write were common, and there are countless stories of these men when in hospitals dictating letters to nurses to send to the people at home. When they were well and with their units, they'd get a friend who could write to pen their letters for them. The only thing that slowed down Confederate letter writing was a severe shortage of paper in the last year or two of the war. Envelopes might be completely unobtainable, and in that case the paper of the letter was folded, just like it was going to be put into an envelope, and the address written on the back. Some of the letters that survive are amazingly literate and moving, considering the scant educational opportunities most of the farm boys who were the vast majority of both armies had enjoyed when they were boys. But then, consider the beauty of Lincoln's writing and speeches, and the fact that Lincoln learned to write using the end of a burnt piece of wood from the fireplace to copy letters onto a shovel blade, before the flickering fire, and never had more than a few months of "blab school" in his entire life. Many people read everything they could get their hands on, and became literate in this way.