hmmm

while KJ was helping me decipher handwriting of the past on old civil war documents, we wondered if they ever received any of the stuff they ordered? he thinks they were hopeful, that's why they kept fighting, they thought they could win. we now know of course that it was a losing battle, that they were hungry and shoeless and not getting paid, that their south was being bombed and looted and destroyed around them, their crops and animals destroyed and burnt to starve them out...but I'd like to think they did get the envelopes and foolscap paper and steel pens, and some shoes and overcoats and drawers. they sure deserved them! they fought for what they thought was right, they were shot at and survived God knows what, and the lucky ones walked back home at the end of it. but I'm sure it affected them the rest of their lives. how could it not?