{"id":9675,"date":"2021-08-09T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9675"},"modified":"2021-08-09T13:47:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T17:47:35","slug":"the-civil-war-through-the-collis-s-hough-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9675","title":{"rendered":"The Civil War through the Collis S. Hough letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, hello there! It\u2019s so nice to have you back again.\u00a0 I have a special treat for you today, and\u2014SURPRISE!\u2014it\u2019s not about C-SPAN! Turns out I do have more than one dimension to my personality and I am<\/em> capable of talking about other subjects.\u00a0 (I know, you\u2019re thinking, \u2018well\u2026..we\u2019ll see.\u2019) Allow me to show you.<\/p>\n

One of the great things about my job is that occasionally, I get to handle something that\u2019s just really, really cool (not that most historical records aren\u2019t cool, but you know what I mean).\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s something really old, like the facsimile of an illuminated manuscript from the 15th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Or it could be something rare, like the logbook of a Coast Guard lifeboat dispatched to the site of not one, but two<\/em> ships which had broken in two off the coast of Massachusetts.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s even something famous, like the handwritten account of the first doctor on site after Abraham Lincoln was shot.\u00a0 In the world of digitization, these excitements can be hard to come by, mostly because we don\u2019t spend a lot of time perusing records for content, being focused as we are on the process of speedy digital conversion.\u00a0 But when I do get the chance to slow down and immerse myself in a story, it\u2019s like stepping into history for a moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"

I don’t look this cute when I takes trip into the past<\/p><\/div>\n

I recently got to do that when I was working on digitizing the letters of Collis S. Hough, a new acquisition for the Special Collections Research Center.\u00a0 Hough was a Civil War soldier, who fought with the First Connecticut Artillery Regiment in the Union Army.\u00a0 During his several years in the War, his faithful letters to his wife, Harriet, at home gave insight into the life of a Civil War soldier\u2014the relatively tolerable, the pretty bad, and the REALLY bad (yeah, there\u2019s not a lot of sunshine to be found in warfare).\u00a0 And, because we not only digitized the letters, but transcribed them for you (that means you don\u2019t have to decipher a lot of misspellings in 19th<\/sup>-century handwriting, so congrats), they are now an amazing resource for anyone interested in getting a glimpse of his experiences!<\/p>\n

\"\"

So excited to dive in to history<\/p><\/div>\n

What I love about reading these letters is that there are so many sentiments in them that are relatable, despite the fact that Hough and I are very different individuals living in very different times.\u00a0 But, at the end of the day, Collis Hough was a regular human being, separated from his family to fight in a seemingly endless war.\u00a0 For instance, he expresses genuine love for his family.\u00a0 His affection for them is clear\u2014he writes that he \u201cthinks of [them] every hour in the day.\u201d\u00a0 One beautiful, emotionally devastating letter includes the heartfelt promise that \u201cAlthough we are separated in person, yet you and the children are never absent from my thoughts and it is my continual practice to recommend you to the care of that Being whose eyes are on all his creatures and to whom the secrets of all hearts are open.\u201d\u00a0 The father of two young daughters, he almost always ends his letters with \u201ckiss the babies for me\u201d (cue the tears).<\/p>\n

Sometimes, Hough spends letters reporting on family friends who have died, or entire companies of men who marched off to battle and haven\u2019t been heard from since.\u00a0 The realities of his experiences are bleak, even more so when he speculates the War will end within six months, even though you know it\u2019s only 1863 and they have two more years of fighting ahead.\u00a0 Occasionally, these reports turn into anger\u2014in one instance, he writes \u201cThis last battle has been an awful slaughter.\u00a0 I suppose you have all heard of the Battle of Fredericksburgh where twenty thousand men have been either killed or wounded all for a few men in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

One of the digitized Hough letters<\/p><\/div>\n

He doesn\u2019t have a lot of kind words for the Confederate soldiers either, in one letter giving his impressions of them: \u201cThe Southern Confederacy is pretty much played out by the looks of [their] soldiers for they are the Dirtiest looking fellows I ever see\u2026I have been through [their] camps and seen [their] style of living and it is enough to kill one to look at [their] filthy Quarters.\u201d\u00a0 To be fair, from his descriptions, it does sound pretty bad.<\/p>\n

And then, there\u2019s the everyday updates\u2014changes of location, concern about pay, complaints about food\u2014those types of topics that you probably didn\u2019t spend any real time on in school.\u00a0 Thanks to ordinary people, like Hough, writing letters or journals of their lives, their records are now part of the narrative.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fascinating to learn about the Civil War from the perspective of someone who was actually there.\u00a0 Not only does it reinforce that events like that actually happened outside of some history textbook you read in middle school, it also reminds you that the people who lived those events were often just like you and me.\u00a0 Living through war was heartbreaking, confusing, full of dashed hopes and uncertain futures, and economically devastating. He, like all of us probably would, clung to his family and the hope of seeing them again to make it through the darkest days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much to learn and enjoy in this collection! If you\u2019re interested in taking a little step into history yourself, check out the Collis S. Hough letters and their full transcriptions right here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow SCRC on Social Media and look out for future posts in our Travel Series on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0accounts. \u00a0To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us at\u00a0speccoll@gmu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to\u00a0schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions. Appointments are not necessary to request and view collections.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, hello there! It\u2019s so nice to have you back again.\u00a0 I have a special treat for you today, and\u2014SURPRISE!\u2014it\u2019s not about C-SPAN! Turns out I do have more than one dimension to my personality and I am capable of talking about other subjects.\u00a0 (I know, you\u2019re thinking, \u2018well\u2026..we\u2019ll see.\u2019) Allow me to show you. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101020,"featured_media":9674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557,558,4],"tags":[248,571],"class_list":["post-9675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-collections","category-digitization","category-recent-acquisitions","tag-civil-war","tag-correspondence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Houghletter-min-scaled.jpg?fit=2047%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-2w3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6453,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6453","url_meta":{"origin":9675,"position":0},"title":"Charles Magnus, Patriotic Civil War Propaganda Printmaker","author":"admin","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was written by Leanne Fortney, who began working with us in March as a Graduate Student Assistant within Research Services. 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While, processing a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recently processed"","block_context":{"text":"recently processed","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=162"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Brady.jpg?fit=769%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Brady.jpg?fit=769%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Brady.jpg?fit=769%2C486&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Brady.jpg?fit=769%2C486&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9895,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9895","url_meta":{"origin":9675,"position":3},"title":"Looking Over Our Shoulder: The Cold War and Civil Rights in the United States","author":"admin","date":"December 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog post is most of the exhibit case text from \"The Cold War and Civil Rights in the United States,\" part of the Special Collections Research Center's \"Looking Over our Shoulder: the Cold War in American Culture\" exhibit, on display through January 2022. 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