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We couldn’t resist talking about how the mail system worked! While delays in communication were a common theme in Season 1, John hasn’t talked too much about the mail yet. In Episode 8, we take a look at how letters were delivered, especially as troops moved into enemy territory.

To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.

Letters featured in Episode 8 are available below:

Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Nov. 8th, 1863

Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Dec. 3, 1863

(Notice in the December letter that John wrote in both directions to conserve paper!)

Additional research for this episode:

• Mail Service and the Civil War
• Joseph Briggs and the Free City Delivery
• The United States Post Office Domestic Postal Money Order System in the 19th Century
• Civil War Letters
• Railway Mail Service
• Neither snow nor rain nor secession? Mail delivery and the experience of disunion in 1861
• Postal Service during the Civil War

Questions? Comments? Let us know!