Marian.... I believe that the story told in your letters is invaluable to historians and people everywhere as to why we should learn as much from our past, not just as a lesson to avoid civil war at all costs, but how to understand why, as much as the human race progresses, in some ways we stay the same.

There are many stories similar to that of Upton Hayes, yet the letters you share make it much more real. You are correct in that Abraham Lincoln had relatives, both direct and through his wife, that served the South and paid with their lives for it.

One of my relatives sadly mused in his autobiography about what his Kentucky relatives would have felt about him, since he so passionately served the Union during the war. While it may amaze many countries, and in spite of Reconstruction, the founding of the Klu Klux Klan, and our struggles with racism over the years, by and large reprisals were limited and the country healed itself.

What I attempt to do is to look at history as based on digging through as many facts, pro and con, as possible and trying to use sources as close to the time period as can be found. Then I try to compare factual data with bias data and see what is out there.

Your letters are part of that process.

Thank you for sharing them.