The ongoing remembrance of the beginning of the Civil War will no doubt bring forth an avalanche of new books on the era. Some of the most poignant are those containing letters of Civil War soldiers to their families.
One of those is "Dear Sallie ... The Letters of Confederate Private James Jewel," a soldier from Oglethorpe County.
This work, edited by Gary L. Doster of Athens, contains 114 letters -- mostly from Jewel to his sister Sallie but also some from her -- written between 1862 and 1865. As the war drew to a close, Jewel was lost, and details of his death and burial remain unknown.
While many Civil War soldiers' letters are from the better-known battlefields, most of these are from the north Florida campaign. Those from his sister tell of the plight of women on the home front, and show how desperate things had become for them.
The majority of the letters are owned by Doster, who has adjusted some of the punctuation and paragraphs for readability, leaving the messages intact. This gives the reader the full force of Jewel's writings to his family. While he was not engaged in battle, he and his fellow soldiers suffered greatly from the elements, but also saw new places.
There is an afterword about what happened to the various family members mentioned, his widow living until 1911. Appendices include family genealogy tables; obituaries of the major parties; an annotated list of the men in Jewel's unit, the Echols Light Artillery; a bibliography; and a full-name index.
This work provides valuable insight into one soldier's role in a theater of the war normally not covered.
The book is available for $24.95 postpaid from Angle Valley Press, P.O. Box 4098, Winchester, VA 22604 or check www.anglevalleypress.com.
Alabama surname files
One of the most important files at the Alabama Department of Archives and History has been the one covering Alabama surnames. While microfilmed by the Mormons and available on loan at a Family History Center, they are also now on www.ancestry.com.
These files, dating back to 1901, are a must if you have any Alabama lines. Here you will find obituaries, compiled family data, any letters to the archives about the family, and much more. Go to the website and then in their Card Catalog search for "Alabama surname files."
Wilkinson County cemeteries
"The Cemeteries of Wilkinson County, Georgia," published with a grant from the R. J. Taylor Jr. Foundation, can be found at the Georgia Archives and other libraries.
It updates the earlier works by Joseph T. Maddox, with the authors visiting all 223 known cemeteries.
The book is available from the Wilkinson County Historical Society, P.O. Box 476, Gordon, GA 31031 for $55 plus $6 postage. The society's website is www.netstarz.net/wilco. See www.friendsofcems.org for cemetery records for Wilkinson and other Middle Georgia counties.
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