I've been having a lot of fun at work the last day and a half. At the request of the National Archives my boss's boss decided to do a last ditch effort to find some information on W.P. Inman of Cold Mountain fame. Both the book and the movie are based very, very loosely on a real guy. Since he deserted, we have no pension records for him. My boss wanted me to look some other places so I've got to spend a lot of time reading Civil War letters from other guys in his regiment to see if he was mentioned. I did not have any luck, but got to read some cool stuff. Particularly eloquent / funny / sad / gory were some letters from a guy named W.W. England of the 25th Regiment. Here are some quotes from his letters back to his parents:
"The girls are marrying so fast that I have quit writing to them for fear of writing to some mans wife."
"Fannings lungs are slightly cut on the left side I could hear wind coming out of the bullet hole. Lyle Wils is struck in the side or side of the abdomen with a peice of shell or grape knocking a chunk out but he says he dont think that his intestines are hurt and he thinks he will over it if they nurse him well and keep the flies off."
"I only weigh one hundred and fifteen pounds."
"This country (West Virginia) puts me in the mind of home (Transylvania County, NC) the most of any place I have been the old blue ridge shows. The first time I have seen mountains in a year."
"I have written to you twice without receiving any answer I thought I would try it the third time and see if you were all dead."
