Letters from Charley Goodyear
  • Home
    • The Program
    • Introduction
    • The Journal
    • Acknowledgements
    • Dedication
    • Legal
  • Letters
    • Sept. 18 1862>
      • The September of 1862
      • September 18, 1862 Description
    • Sept. 19 1862>
      • The September of 1862
      • September 19, 1862 Description
    • Dec. 24 1862>
      • The December of 1862
      • December 24, 1862 Description
    • April 11 1863>
      • The April of 1863
      • April 11 1863 Description
    • May 23 1863>
      • The May of 1863
      • May 23, 1863 Description>
        • Footnote 1
        • Footnote 2
        • Footnote 3
        • Footnote 4
    • May 24 1863>
      • The May of 1863
      • May 24, 1863 Description
    • Sept. 22 1863>
      • The September of 1863
      • September 22 1863 Description
    • Sept. 24 1863>
      • The September of 1863
      • September 24, 1863 Description
    • April 14, 1883
  • Biography
    • Cornelius B. Gold
    • Edgar W. Calhoun
    • George Lyman
    • Gilbert Goodyear
    • Henry A. Calhoun
    • Henry E. Rowe
    • HJ Church
    • John H. Logan
    • John O'Brien
    • Lewis G. Logan
    • Sheldon Clark
    • Stephen Goodyear
  • Articles
    • A War not Well
    • Adjutant General
    • Alexandria
    • Baseball and the Gunnery
    • Black and White
    • Civil War Photography
    • Connecticut's 1863 Election
    • Dan and Mary Gunn Photo
    • Dear Sir?
    • Fairfax Seminary Hospital
    • Fort Richardson
    • Fort Scott
    • Furlough
    • Goodyear's Constant Education
    • Goodyear's Enterprise
    • Holding onto your Men
    • Inactivity in the War
    • Letters from Back in the Day
    • Letters to Abigail
    • Litchfield Pride
    • Malaria
    • Military Organization
    • Mr. Gunn & Charley Goodyear
    • Regiments of Charles and Romulus
    • Romulus' "New Buisness"
    • The Casey Board
    • The Gunnery at War
    • The Mortar
    • Which Regiment?
    • Van Cott and the Sword
  • Map
  • Blog
  • Photo Gallery
    • Videos
  • Links
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Letters offer the modern day historian an important look into the past, especially a look into the everyday lives of people.  Unfortunately, so many of these important documents have been lost in the maelstrom known as time.  Fire, especially, seems to have destroyed much of our past, such as in the case of Charley who lost all his letters received during the war when his Georgia house burned down in 1872.

The letters below offer an important look into the life and times of Charley Goodyear.  His letters serve now as a window into of our past, and from them we can learn much of where we have come from.  Within the letters, we can see a man deep in thought, indignant towards authority, and in love with the ideas that helped guide him towards his own enlistment.  But beyond what we can learn about him, the letters also work as a means to teach us about life in the military.  He talks of generals and drills.  In his last two letters, he talks of his goal to become an officer in a Colored Regiment, and the “red tape” he has to go through to reach that goal.  From his letters, we can learn much of our own history.

The letters that are on this site have been explicated to help a reader better understand where he is coming from, and to elaborate on some of the things which he talks about.  Links are within the letters that lead to small elaborative articles.  The links are colored reddish-brown for easy finding.  Please click on as many as you see, and hopefully through self-exploration, you can find something new and different, and learn just a little more of our past.

So please, explore the letters...

~Zachary Bodnar
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