10th Mississippi Letter

[Ozzy 787]

J.J. Little was a Private in the 10^th Mississippi Infantry, Company H who fought at Shiloh (and wrote a Letter home, dated 13 April 1862.) He describes seeing the “2000 Union prisoners from Shiloh pass through Corinth” and indicates that he saw General Prentiss, too. The 4-page letter is one of five letters written by Sergeant Little, available at University of Mississippi Digital Collection. Available at http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/J.J. Little Collection/mode/exact .

 

 

[rwaller 105]

Hello Ozzy, thanks for the link. Do you know if there is a transcript of the letters?  Having a difficult time reading them. Thank you, Roger. 

[Ozzy 787]

Roger

I had the same response as you when first trying to read SGT J.J. Little's letters: “Where are the transcripts?” And, when no transcripts came to hand, I resorted to “close scrutiny,” beginning with address and dates (known words to determine how letters such as a, e, i, m, n, r and s will appear in the cursive penmanship later in the document.)

In Little's letters, “r” resembles n, “i” resembles e, “s” at the end of words is f, and ss is sf (as was commonly done in 18^th Century). Thankfully, not many misspellings (buisy for busy, and “wheel bears” for wheel barrows.)

Once I figured out all of the individual words, I read the letter from the beginning... for the real meaning and news that Little attempted to communicate to his parents in 1861 and 1862. A bit more time consuming than ideal, but sometimes “the best you can do” has to be good enough.

Cheers

Ozzy