A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie

Joseph Benjamin Polley (1840 - 1918)

Whether written in camp, in hospital, or in hospitable home, the letters tell a plain, unvarnished, and true story of the observations and experiences, the impressions and feelings, of a soldier whose only personal regret is that he could not be one of those whose paroles at Appomattox are patents incontestable that they fought for the right as they saw it, as long as there was a hope to encourage them. Though not intended as history, they are historical in the respect that they narrate actual occurrences in camp, on the march, and in the battle. The lady to whom all but the last were addressed was no more a myth from 1861 to 1865 than now, when, a gray-haired wife, mother, and grandmother, she presides with the grace and dignity of the truest womanhood over the home made for her by the gallant officer of the Tennessee Army, her first and only beloved, whom she wedded shortly after the close of the war. To her soldier correspondent she was the friend of one more than a friend. It was not until March of 1865 that they ever met. Her letters kept him so well-advised of all that was transpiring in Texas, and were so friendly, entertaining, and altogether "charming," that, without leave or license, he substituted that adjective for the conventional "Miss" to which she was entitled. (Summary by J. B. Polley)

Genre(s): Memoirs, Letters

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Introduction Dale Latham
00:08:54
Play 01 Early Experiences in Camp Dale Latham
00:12:57
Play 02 Humorous Incidents Dale Latham
00:17:36
Play 03 Around Yorktown asterix
00:19:44
Play 04 Battle of Seven Pines asterix
00:13:40
Play 05 Gaines' Mill asterix
00:14:31
Play 06 Battle of Second Manassas asterix
00:15:21
Play 07 Second Manassas, Continued asterix
00:18:07
Play 08 Crossing Over Into Maryland asterix
00:14:32
Play 09 Incidents at Fredericksburg Dale Latham
00:18:20
Play 10 In and Around Richmond Dale Latham
00:25:20
Play 11 After Chancellorsville Dale Latham
00:14:49
Play 12 Hood's Texans in Pennsylvania Denise Nordell
00:14:39
Play 13 Gettysburg Denise Nordell
00:13:01
Play 14 Reminiscences of Chickamauga Denise Nordell
00:12:17
Play 15 Forage for Hog Meat asterix
00:23:33
Play 16 A Battle 'Above the Clouds' asterix
00:18:15
Play 17 Strenuous Times in Tennessee asterix
00:16:08
Play 18 The Power of the Fiddle and the Bow asterix
00:16:39
Play 19 Some 'Escape' Stories asterix
00:23:35
Play 20 A Flight to Arms Dale Latham
00:18:51
Play 21 A Thirty Day Furlough Dale Latham
00:17:46
Play 22 Texas in the Battle of the Wilderness Dale Latham
00:17:21
Play 23 Fun in the Trenches asterix
00:16:22
Play 24 Texans in Virginia asterix
00:15:34
Play 25 Hot Skirmishing - Wounded asterix
00:19:58
Play 26 Luxuriating in Feasts and Feather Beds asterix
00:17:24
Play 27 Adventures En Route to Texas asterix
00:21:11
Play 28 Fourth Texas at Gaines' Mill asterix
00:41:01