“I TAKE MY PEN IN HAND”

(The Letters Series Book #2)

INSPIRED BY THE REAL LETTERS OF A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER

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September 3, 1861

My Dear Father,

I take my pencil in hand to write a few lines to you to let you know that I made up my mind to go and fight for our country and I let you know that I am in Harrisburg now and I like it very good. And I wish you wouldn’t think hard of me that I left Deep Creek for I was tired of it long ago and I let you know that we made our home in Camp Curtin. *

For the Union, now and forever,

John W. Derr

By the Fall of 1861, John W. Derr, the twenty-two-year-old son of a Pennsylvania farmer in the Deep Creek Valley of Barry township in Schuylkill County, was becoming increasingly anxious about his future; one that seemed to be following the same path as his farming ancestors. He was eager to join the Army and begin a life’s adventure in what looked like a short war. Following in the footsteps of neighbors such as John Z. Wagner, who had joined earlier in the year as part of President Lincoln’s “First Defenders” call-up, Derr was determined to join the fight before the war was over. In 1861, the belief was that the small number of skirmishes that had occurred meant that the conflict would be a very short affair and would not result in a full-scale war. Encouraged by the press, young men throughout the country were joining the Union army in order to experience the “glories” of war. Little did any of them know that the war would be a long, drawn out, and bloody affair that would impact communities in both the North and South.