E. Dianne James

War was no stranger to the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. A small farming community at the outbreak of the Civil War, Sudbury stood ready to support the cause of the Union. Uriah and Mary Moore, a local farmer and his wife, parents of ten children, sent four sons off to fight for the Union. George Frederick Moore was twenty years old when he joined the Thirty-fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers in 1862, along with brother, Albert. Their brother, John, had enlisted in the Thirteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers and had been serving since 1861. In 1864, a fourth brother, Alfred, joined the Fifty-ninth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. The eighty-four letters in this collection span the years from August 1862 to the end of the War and include correspondence to and from Pvt. George Moore and five family members. Georges personal diaries from 1863 and 1864 are also included, as well as the 1867 diary of Sarah Jones, the girl he married. Through research the family is traced long after the war, revealing their travels and accomplishments.

Explanatory passages that accompany these letters highlight the campaigns of the Thirty-fifth Regiment through the war years. George Moore took part in battles from South Mountain and Antietam to Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbells Station, and the Siege of Knoxville. He participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the assault on Petersburg. The letters to and from George Moore and his loved ones provide an intimate glimpse of the trials, not only of the soldiers, but of the family who sent their boys off to war.