Both ardent Unionists who hated slavery and revered Lincoln, the Peirces wrote nearly every week over their long separation-letters that reveal a deep and abiding love for each other, as well as their strong-willed allegiance to the Union cause. Taylors letters tell of battles and camp life, drilling and training, brave and cowardly commanders, troop morale, raucous amusements like music and gambling, delinquent paymasters, and his own moral code and motivation for fighting. They include graphic descriptions of the battles around Vicksburg, including vivid details about burning plantation houses, digging canals and trenches, and enduring constant rifle and artillery fire.

Catharine, for her part, reported on family and relatives, the demands of being a single mother with three young children, business affairs, household concerns, weather and crops, events in Des Moines, and national politics, filling gaps in our knowledge of Northern life during the war. Most of all, her letters convey her frustration and aching loneliness in Taylors absence, as well as her fears for his life, even as other women were becoming widowed by the war.

The letters paint an engrossing portrait of a soldier and husband who was trying to do his patriotic and familial duty, and of a wife trying to cope with loneliness and responsibility while longing for her husbands safe return. Beautifully edited and annotated by prize-winning Civil War historian Richard Kiper, they bring to life a nation under siege and provide a rare look at the wars impact on both the common soldier and his family.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.