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Forgot to read

Like Boeses headed for opening the letter, she was occupied by the citizens of Michigan who respected her a lot. She received a warm greeting from them and captivated her in their general talks that made her forget the letter. She has completely forgotten her and continued with the distribution of other letters.

Unsealed

Boes, until the next day, I totally forgot the letter. Crossing the names of the recipients, she suddenly recalled that the mysterious letter she had kept in her bag for conservation. Without wasting a single moment, she moved the envelope.

Hidden

As soon as she is disconnected from the envelope, she could see another envelope looking outside of each other. It relocated it delicately so that no harm can be made to the letters inside. She did it with concentration and left the free letter of the hidden envelope.

The condition

As she opened the envelope, she had to see such a dilapidated condition of the letter. To add, there was no one letter but more than one. His analysis concluded that the letters belonged to the past and hid some of the codes that needed to be decoded.

Read it

After analyzing the letter, she read the letter. She was surprised to see handwriting. She again supposed that handwriting was far too old school. She wanted to erase her doubts and give a form to her hypothesis; That's why she called for external help.

The first thought

Boes started thinking about why would anyone want to send him several old letters. Were these letters cursed or had a relationship with the past? Decoding these letters alone would take a lot of time, so she thought about looking for the help of others so that she could solve the enigma of these letters in a short time.

No shipping stamp

She noted that there was no clash stamp on these letters. The internal envelope seemed to be from the Virginian city of Norfolk. The recipient's name was partially visible and read carefully, Lori Boes understood that the name of the receiver was Orrin W. Shephard. The letter should be sent to the recipient who turned out to be the parents of the sender.

Authentic or not?

Although Lori Boes was impressed by the letters she read so far but was always confused from the originality of letters. She needed to confirm if the letters had a connection with the glorious past or not. If so, then she could help her country in this way.

Looking for help

Boes was uncertain what to do with the letters further, so she decided to contact Chuck Howe, who was the head of the Post District in the Greater Michigan area. He also crossed the letters but he too could not decide if the letters existed in time, then he looked up for a historian named Jenny Lynch.

Sharing the question

Howe, without having a second thought, sent the photographs of the letters to Lynch at his Washington, D.C.Office. At first glance, Lynch believed that the letters were authentic but basically he wanted a second opinion on the same. Lynch was looking for the expertise of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. She approached Dan Piazza who was an assistant commissioner at the institution.

Authentic!

After looking closer to the size and type of paper used in the correspondence and type of ink used, the Piazza used his knowledge and was satisfied with what he had learned. The Assistant Commissioner won the results in Lynch and said: "They are authentic."

Belonging

The letters sparked an image of a young man who was too young to fully apprehend the results of the battle he was fighting. It was, indeed, a rare and first-hand view in a monumental time in the history of the United States. And he revealed the weight of tasks bequeathed on amateur soldiers.

Dear parents

The note inside the envelope started as "my dear parents", I received your welcome letter last Sunday and I just returned from the guard [duty]. I was just in the good mood to write for me to try it. We left Union Mills the next day after I sent you the letter. "

The battle

With intense focus on "Union Mills", the letter continued, "As we had the Fairfax courthouse, we walked about six miles when we were developed in the battle. But nothing happens [sic]; Only some of our stakes took prisoners. The next morning we took three rebels of prisoners ... "

The era

The first lines of the letter provided an additional index at the origin of the letter. Printed on it was another stamp mark in red and blue ink. He described a battle scene and understood the registration, "the war for the Union".

Incomplete image

Lynch felt that no matter how difficult she tried, she was not going to get the complete picture of the soldier, so she reached out Steve Kochersperger who was a USPS researcher with an interest in the civil war. To add, Kochersperger had an ancestor who led a private mail service in the Philadelphia region that was before the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

Idea!

Lynch has had an idea to reach out to people. He thought if the article appeared in theSmithsonian Magazine and on its website, it could attract the attention of nearly eight million strong audiences. He approached the magazine and his idea was approved. The room then ran next to an evocative photo photo recreating a historically authentic writing space.

share

The article they published have told an imagined story of the soldier's life with the details described in his letters. TheSmithsonianThe public of the magazine, deeply moved by the article, has shared the room widely. The pages of history have been returned and the civil wars were read again.

Reply

In the weeks following the publication of the article, Lynch received an email from Courtney Cresta living in the spring, Texas. The email suggested that she recognized the letters found by her grandmother Nancy Cramblit, who resides in Muskegon, MI.

Conversation

Lynch was soon able to speak with the 78-year-old child on the phone. He was curious to know the origin of the letters. He assumed that the lady he was about to speak was somewhere or other related to the author of the letter. At its consternation, nothing of this kind has happened.

The collector

While having a conversation on a call, Lynch was informed that Cramblit's husband, Marvin, had been an avid collector. He often informed antique shops and even triaches sales in search of interesting historical artifacts and souvenirs. He wanted to preserve the story by buying the artifacts and keeping his safety with himself.

To find

When Marvin died in 1978, his wife, Cramblit found the letters among his collection. She never knew the letters when Marvin was alive. She was perplexed as she had no idea where they came from or who sold them to him.

Send it back

After reading the letters, Cramblit thought of sending them to the respectful owner or the owner's family. She thought that the correspondence would be placed with surviving members of the soldier's family. Cramblit had a chance and sent the letter to the postmaster of the city so that the post master can find the authentic recipient of the letter.

Small city

NEWAYGO is a city of a population of about 2,000 people only. Cramblit thought the small town was closely linked. She thought the inhabitants probably knew a tumble dryer or two. Since the village was tightly packaged, the postser would certainly find the authentic owner of the letter.

The risk

The grandmother has every risk of not mentioning the return address. If the letters were lost, there was no chance of getting the letters. Knowing all this, the risk was taken and the letters were sent to the postpaste.

It worked!

The risk of Cramblity was worth it. Boes and his colleagues proceeded to the next step that gives the letter in the hands of an expert. The search for surviving parents of the author has begun. It was more a personal mission for research analysts.

Opinion

Kochersperger working on the case, told theSmithsonian Magazine, "I have identified with [Shephard] as a boy to see the world. I could also identify with his parents since I have five children." To be emphatic, he started analyzing the letters and the case took a different direction.

Interesting!

While analyzing the letters closer, Kochersperger discovered that one of the letters was written to the brother. It seems that only Albert's notes, Shephard's brother, were written by the soldier himself. Although the majority of the soldiers of the Civil War were literate, it is presumed that many preferred to dictate letters with those with a faster and more readable writing.

Depth study

Kochersperger had chronologically organize the incidents described in the Shedhard letters with those recorded in history books. The researcher has crossed several sources, such as newspaper archives, census and military archives. But most striking among them wasThe history of Livingston County, Michigan by Franklin Ellis published in 1880.

Disclosed

From all the studies he has crossed, he was able to discover that Shephard was born around 1843. He had also been the eldest of three children born in Sarah and Orrin Shephard. In the 1850s, the family had called Grass Lake, half at home. But they had then moved to White River.

His life

They assumed that the Shephard enlisted a little over a year in the war where he was only 18 years old. To their surprise, rather than describing bloody conflicts, he wrote about America outside the Michigan that his duty took him.

Admiring

Tackling this experience, the young soldier explained it as "the most beautiful architecture in the United States ... a large mass of stone and iron, there is little wood about it. Everything is white and completely filled with the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen. "

Brutal game

By the letters and books of the past, they studied that the young man fought in the war. After many brutal battles, he was captured by the other troupe and finally, at the age of 21, he died because of the wild conditions in a Military Prison of Salisbury on December 18, 1864.

Preserved for ages

Shephard's story was not so happy because there was no missing to meet his family before losing his last breath. Yet his letters showed how he loved his family. Shephard may have been forgotten over time, but his letters have this intensity to connect to the era of war and revive his pains. His letters are now preserved at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.