“Dear Friends at Home”: Becoming Acquainted with a Civil War Soldier Through His Letters Home

Melvan Tibbetts was a Union soldier occupying Pensacola for a portion of the Civil War. We are very lucky to have the 20 letters that he wrote home to his family in Maine. These letters supply a wealth of information about West Florida during the Civil War, but they also provide a strong sense of familiarity with Melvan himself. This presentation demonstrates how much of an author’s personality is contained in historical documents and how this results in a more personal understanding of the past for the reader.

Presented by:
The Staff of the North Central Region
Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN)
Submit a Speaker Request Form:
http://fpan.us/ncrc/presentations.php