Toward a More Perfect Union

The Civil War Letters of Frederic and Elizabeth Lockley

Charles E. Rankin

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781496232984
• eBook ISBN: 9781496234919
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Toward a More Perfect Union is an extraordinary book of husband-and-wife letters written during the Civil War, selected from the Frederic E. Lockley Collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Appearing here are 162 letters exchanged between Frederic Lockley and his wife Elizabeth, chosen from 405 letters preserved in the collection. The survival of such two-way exchanges is rare. Few soldiers in the field had the opportunity to save letters from home. The Lockleys' selected letters narrate a chronological three-year story, from 1862 to 1865. When Frederic enlisted at thirty-seven, he and Elizabeth promised each other they would write twice a week and, for the most part, they did. These are not average letters. A published author, Frederic was remarkably insightful and articulate and Elizabeth was literate and expressive as well. Although primarily a love story set during the Civil War, Toward a More Perfect Union also offers ample military material, some not well represented elsewhere in Civil War literature. Frederic wrote of life in garrison duty in defense of Washington, manning the siege lines at Petersburg, and guarding Union parolees and Confederate prisoners of war. But his letters also show strong ties to home and his need for those ties in order to maintain his own mental and emotional equilibrium in the face of the horrors of war. Elizabeth's letters reflect an urban setting and the perspective of a young, recently married woman who spent much of her time parenting three young children from Frederic's first marriage. In fact, children and parenting assume a theme in Fred and Lizzie's correspondence almost as constant and consequential as the war itself. Providing background and framework for these exceptional letters, editor Charles E. Rankin's introduction and contextualization create a continuous narrative that allows readers to follow these correspondents through a time critical to their marriage and to our nation's history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• 1. The Setting
• 2. Days of Roman Heroism
• 3. It’s All for Our Country
• 4. Not Exactly a Bed of Roses
• 5. We Must Ride the Tempest
• 6. Your Letters Are My Meat and Drink
• 7. Would You Fancy the Surprise?
• 8. I Am at My Old Lunes
• 9. Hope Is the Anchor of the Soul
• 10. A Rather Scandalous Affair
• 11. This Morning That Boy Was Buried
• 12. I Left Josey Standing on the Stoop
• 13. Sergeant Major! We Have Got Our Orders!
• 14. Soldiering in Its Roughest, Sternest Form
• 15. An Epoch of Endurance
• 16. No Sundays in the Army
• 17. Fighting Is Almost Incessant
• 18. Which Ticket Are You Going to Vote?
• 19. Johnnies Deserting by Wholesale
• 20. The Fighting Is Nearly Over
• 21. The Little Mischief
• 22. A Soul Struggling to Be Free
• 23. I Share with You in This Impatience
• 24. My Last Letter!!
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About Charles E. Rankin
• Illustrations