John Hanlin’s correspondence from Nov. 16, 1862 through March 22, 1865, written to his parents and siblings from a number of locations throughout Indiana, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama. Two sets of typed transcriptions, one annotated and the other final, which differ in coverage but are complementary. A handwritten note on transcription.

Because Hanlin wrote continuously during his service in a very mobile regiment, his letters contain a wide variety of experiences, travel descriptions, battle accounts, and impressions of military life, as well as his attitudes toward the war, “Secesh,” and his own commanding officers. Most letters contain Hanlin’s fairly detailed observations about his changing environment and his reports on the other “Boys of Noble.” Subjects range from the mundane to the more idealistic, including the problem of desertion, troop morale, speculation about peace, the competence of certain Union generals, the character of the Confederate army, “civilized warfare,” and slavery and emancipation. Anecdotes about camp life include an incident where soldiers at Camp Morton refused to drill until their living conditions improved; another describes the court martial and execution of three New Jersey soldiers convicted of raping a woman in Memphis. The letters written during the Red River campaign, from March through June 1864, contain the longest and most detailed accounts of combat, especially of the Battle of Pleasant Hill, where the regiment suffered 54 casualties. Occasionally Hanlin writes to correct newspaper accounts of the fighting, such as in one letter addressed to his mother and dated July 30, 1864, where he states that black soldiers do not serve as prominently as people claim. The letters addressed to his sisters Margaret and Sarah discuss friends at home and in the regiment.

The two sets of typed transcriptions cover different parts of the collection, with significant overlap. The earlier annotated set is more comprehensive and editorial. It includes transcriptions of undated fragments and portions of whole letters that the final set omits. The annotations mostly relate to word choice, dating, and number ambiguity. The final set reflects the edits to the annotated set, and so is more accurate to the originals on a word-for-word basis. The handwritten note describes certain choices made during transcription, such as the addition of punctuation, which is mostly lacking in the originals. One letter, addressed to S. J. (Sarah) Hanlin, exists only in transcription.