LETTERS HOME

This past week or so volunteers have been focusing on excerpts from letters John Lapham Bullis wrote to "his Mother, Mrs. Dr. A. R. Bullis" during the Civil War.

Some of these letters were written from Annapolis Maryland in November and December, 1863, about 16 months after he had enlisted as a corporal in the New York voluntary Infantry.  In them he expresses his wish that the war was over and assures his mother that he's content to be "as far as possible from Richmond."  He also states, "...I think if they get hold of me again I can do some tall running toward the land of plenty," evidently referring to his capture and the subsequent 10 months when he was confined to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.

Reading these letters 150 years later, we are in awe of men like John Lapham Bullis who survived this conflict that set countryman versus countryman. Why did they participate in this conflict? Dedication and bravery are two possible answers. We'll keep looking for more.