Author to speak on Civil War correspondence

By EMILY BENNETT DILULLO

ebennett@yourmvi.com

Going through the old belongings of a family member can be emotionally challenging, but Carleton Young uncovered something amazing in 2014. 

While sorting through his parents’ attic after their death, he found a box filled to the brim with old paper in yellowed envelopes –– letters he then discovered were pieces of American history. 

“I did not expect to find much that I was unfamiliar with in the house in which I had grown up, but I was quite surprised that we found a very old wooden box in the attic,” Young said. “Inside it were hundreds of letters, still in their original envelopes, written home by two brothers as they fought in the Civil War.”

The brothers’ names were William Henry and Francis Smith Martin. Both were from Vermont and members of the Vermont Brigade. William served as a second lieutenant and Francis as a private. The soldiers fought in famous skirmishes such as the Mine Run campaign, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Funkstown. 

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