Evelyn. Thanks for the post. I have had the privilege of reading letters from Confederate Soldiers to the folks back home that indicated that they made their ink from various berry juices or plant sap when the Sutlers had none for sale.

I have also read comments to the effect that replies to letters were written on the reverse of the original correspondence and in some instances comments were written on any blank spaces left on the epistle.

I have in my files photostatic copies of my Civil War ancestors' documents that survived the war and in all cases they had signed their name to the various muster rolls or given receipts for clothing, etc.

I am sure that some of the tenant farmers or semi-skilled workers were illiterate but in the very limited research that I have done, I have found that many could read and write. The handwriting that I have viewed is very well done even though some words are almost impossible to read due to the poor quality of the writing materials.