NCWA Letter Writing & Parcels Project 2010.

[Drygoods]

Good Day All,

If you're a member of the NCWA and are looking for a bit more interpretation this year, I'd like to invite you to participate with the 2010 letter writing project. Mike Sanders and Joe Fiffick have arranged a soldier and civilian's post office exchange and are looking for volunteers to write to their soldiers.

Here's a start at the introduction of information needed......
LETTER EXCHANGE REQUEST
In order to exchange letters between our soldiers and civilians, please take a minute to fill this in so it can be used to prepare mail for you. All the info you put down will be about your 1863 identity.

NAME _______________________ RANK ______________________ AGE _________________

UNIT_________________________

HOME TOWN ____________________________ ADDRESS________________________________

CIVILIAN OCCUPATION (now or pre-army) ____________________________________

MARRIED OR SINGLE ____________________

OTHER INFORMATION (could include nicknames, political bent, hobbies, favorite foods, etc.)
______________________________________________

For the soldier's envelopes......an example
Pvt John Smith
Co. A, 69th NYSV
2nd Corps
Camp Gibson Farm (or Virginia, etc.)

The hope is to get some letters started at Oakhurst and Placerville, so please volunteer. Paper and stamps will be provided to you if needed. Mike Sanders also has some period printed envelope covers that he could send along with stamps. (I also have stamps and paper).

As for the future parcels, that will be a project that we hope to get started by Gibson Ranch. I volunteered to provide cloth, buttons, and pattern for 6 woven plaid shirts. As soon as I hear which pattern the soldiers prefer, I'll get the shirts cut and ready for sewing. They could be sewn either at home, or at the events since we seem to have at least 6 or more hand-crank sewing machines. I'm hoping that people will step up and volunteer and perhaps we could expand the project also to the Confederates.
Along with the shirts, we hope to add other items to the parcels such as knit socks and personal items. The whole plan of this project is to get the military and civilians more involved with each other, and from what I hear, it will be a success.

You may either email or PM me (CWdrygoods@aol.com ) with your information, or
Mike at mirolare57@comcast.net ,or
Joe at jfiffick@calcompserv.com
Please speak up and show your interest in this project.

Last, let me mention that period letter writing isn't difficult, takes rather little time, yet provides great results for interpretation, so please give it a try.

[Drygoods]

Good Day All,

I was forwarded the information this afternoon that the NCWA will have it's own postal office at events. All members, as well as the public is encouraged to participate. The project is headed by Michael Gonzales, and it is my hope that he will write a bit more here. The project is expected to get it's initiation at Gibson Ranch this May, however, reminders and more information will be sent out beforehand as a reminder, and types of papers used &c.

here's the forwarded message....
Mail introduction......

It is through the letters and diaries in their writings we gain true insight to what our ancestors truly experienced in the mid-nineteenth century. To fully experience their daily lives we have the opportunity to keep alive this literary tradition.

Announcing mail service for NCWA events

C.S. and U.S. Government contracted private companies will deliver mail and parcels to the dignitaries, military unit members, civilians, and tradesmen at the event site. A post office will be established in civilian camp where individuals may post their correspondence for delivery to family, friends, sweethearts, enemies, and business associates. (Presumably not one letter of all the above mentioned to a single person, unless it applies). Please have your period envelopes with the addressed with the family name for civilians, company title for tradesmen and businesses, and military unit and rank of the soldiers. Include a return address to insure no undelivered or lost mail. Delivery times will be dependent on the volume of mail and site logistics - Distances of the camps, event schedules, etc. Posting of mail will cease mid-Sunday morning of the event to ensure time for all mail to be delivered by the close of the event. If you cannot attend the event, but still wish to post correspondence, mail your letters in modern media to the contact information listed below for delivery at the event.

Write to your friends in the enemy armies, to your military counterpart across the lines. Write to your family members serving in the war with news of home. Soldiers write home to let loved ones know how you are faring. Write to the political leaders in attendance with encouragement or grievances (remember no return address - no delivery!) Write to a pard as a bill collector from home or as a lost acquaintance that has surprise news of an unexpected arrival that will most likely have a strong resemblance to you, and that her father wishes to have a word with you. Be creative and have fun with this. It is for you to take your living history experiences to a higher and more personal level.

[b]kudos and congratulations go to Michael Gonzales for this project![/B]

[Moder Ole]

Here are some more developing ideas about the post office. We should be able to begin this at the upcoming Gibson Ranch. I am attaching an example of period stationary and some methods of folding the letters into envelopes for mailing. Print this up or use whatever materials you have on hand for the letters. A blank sheet of paper folded as in the examples will do nicely. You may take pen to paper in the fashion of the day, or you can print your letters on your writing gin (computer) in whatever font you fancy. The main idea is to encourage the writing and exchanging of letters.

In the past I had contacted the wives of our unit members to ask them to write letters from home to surprise the soldiers in camp with a mail call. It went over very well except for the guy who caught his wife writing an intimate letter she was obviously trying to keep him from seeing. One wife thought she had no ideas to write to her ‘Civil War’ husband. I asked her what they liked to do together and she responded they go to the movies, so I suggested she write about her missing their time together at the ‘theater’. Others wrote of news from home and what each of the family members were up to. If anyone has any more ideas or suggestions please let me know. As previously mentioned, if you are unable to post the letters at the event, but would still like to participate, you may mail your period letters in modern media to:

Michael Gonzales
1507 Thornton St.
Hanford CA. 93230

For questions or ideas contact me at:
alphusknight@hotmail.com

[Drygoods]

Good Day All,

I just wanted to give this thread a bit of a nudge, a bump to bring it current. Gibson Ranch introduces our new post office, and there is still time for you to write a letter to soldier or civilian. It really doesn't take all that much time, and you can also do it on site as long as you've got a pencil, so please get involved with this project.
Write a letter home, or a letter to your commander, no matter who you write to, simply enjoy yourself and see what happens next.

[Drygoods]

If you missed seeing the new NCWA Knight, Tidd & Co., Post Office, you missed something really neat. I cannot believe the numbers of mail that must have passed hands. Just from the request slips alone, I received about 33 new requests over the weekend from soldiers wishing civilian pen pals. WOW, that is a huge number of folks at the first event! Beyond those, I received plenty of mail from the folks that I already knew, and all of my letters were charming.

I have no idea of how many articles changed hands through the post office, but hopefully Mr. Gonzales will chime in with an AAR of his thoughts. Professor Gay's catalogue of goods likely spurred much correspondence, and I did notice a few parcels trading hands. Oddest thing I know mailed was a yellow banana with stamp and inscription of "this reminds me of you" written on the side.

Most of all the letter requests were from the Federal side, but after having a conversation with Pat McKenna, he told me that he hopes to get the southern side as equally busy with those letter requests so that more mail and packages will find their way into their camp.

The requests themselves were quite interesting reading. One lrish lad wrote about his being new to this country, how his father lost a leg, the left one, as though it made a difference, and many other amazing details. One young woman had made the grand tour of Europe, took up with anti-slavery views, got herself engaged to a foreigner, and now her rich family had cast her adrift upon the world. Another fellow must have missed the point of the letter request or was kidding around and thought he was requesting something quite different, as he wrote that he like running, gardening, pina colades, mexican food, and long walks on beaches! I have no clue of what sort of letters he will receive. Truly, the great details in the Federal requests made it very easy for pen pals to adopt them.

Rumor told me that just one fellow had received 70 letters before the whole event truly started. I have no idea if that is true, but it would be amazing if that was the case. I thought just getting 5 letters the first weekend out was good, but it does seem that the post office has taken wing and will continue to be a growing interpretive venue. Thank goodness for that, and many kind thanks go to the staff of the Post Office, and it's creator, Mike Gonzales.

[Moder Ole]

The first outing of the Post office went very well and we had a great time. Thank you all for your patience in our getting started.
Having served in the military camps for the run of my Civil War living history adventures, I had not had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of most to the townspeople. Locating the military units was no problem for our veteran soldier staff members. As we progress, we will become much more efficient in our deliveries. I wish to thank Mrs. Pfiefer, and Mrs. Taylor, whose assistance in helping us locate civilian mail recipients was invaluable.

None of this would have been possible without the enthusiasm and hard work of the members of the Post office staff: Mr. Eric Tidd, Mr. Terry Anderson, and Mr. Chris Davis. Mrs. Annette Gonzales is to be thanked for her work on the sign and the sewing of the mail bags.

I had wanted to keep track of the number of items we delivered, but that was not possible with the large amount of items submitted Friday evening. However, the submissions were a tremendous help in getting things rolling early. I had some concerns about whether we would be ready to start deliveries first thing Saturday. Mr. Tidd, of accounts, estimates a few hundred letters & parcels were processed. It seemed to work well that we deliver to the military after the first battle and before the troops could wander off as to cause little disruption the schedule of the Armies. This was suggested by Colonel Fiffick and we plan continue with this schedule. We then had time to deliver replies and new letters in the afternoon. It will probably be our routine that we cease receipt of mail to the military camps an hour prior to the last battle on Sunday to insure it can be delivered on time. With the close proximity of the civilians, we can deliver a few items a bit later, within time and manpower considerations. We will be working on a posted schedule for regular delivery rounds. All are encouraged to visit and request their mail at the office at any time.


One of the premium items that went through the office was Professor Gay's catalogue. I am sure this will be a most sought after item. Already, orders have been sent back through our office and are on the way to be processed by this enterprising operation. I did not read the letter on the banana, as I was so pleased at having successfully cancelled the stamp with it remaining intact that I was not at all concerned with the content of the ‘letter’.

With the assistance of Debra Johnson, I am procuring names and character impressions from Trades & Professions Guild. We have been discussing some ideas, in order for us to become familiar with all the townspeople in as short a time as possible. We would like to have a directory of sort so we could quickly reference each name to be able to know where to deliver items quickly. This could be in the form of a census, which could be a scenario in itself. Other ideas are to create a short biography of those willing to have their persona recorded for members and guests to learn about.This register would allow the soldiers to better know just who their allies and nemesis are and let them be more creative in the interaction with the civilians. This may be something that is already common knowledge to the civilians and some of the military, but after having spent my entire re-enacting experience in the military with little contact with the civilians I am trying to catch up. No contact information is sought. I do not want to violate anyone’s privacy nor do I want to burden the membership people, unless there is already an easily accessible database with this information. This would include an updated roll of all the military unit members. Folks would be able to know the rank and unit of a particular hero or villain for interaction or correspondence. We are open to ideas to make this better. If you have suggestions, or even if you don’t-WRITE!

In your Service,

Michael Gonzales

[Drygoods]

Originally Posted by Moder Ole;12846Mr. Tidd, of accounts, estimates a few hundred letters & parcels were processed. [FONT=Verdana

Michael Gonzales[/font]

Wow, a few hundred letters and parcels! That is truly amazing.

To answer the list of letter requests, I kept a log of who they were given to and a character name, thus it will help you deliver the mail next time. It might be a good idea to have a sign in book, something akin to a register that a person could put their real name, character name, and locations simply for your own reference just in case you cannot locate them out in the field.

[Sam Slick, Clockmaker]

Originally Posted by Moder Ole

Having served in the military camps for the run of my Civil War living history adventures, I had not had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of most to the townspeople. Locating the military units was no problem for our veteran soldier staff members. As we progress, we will be much more efficient in our deliveries.

We would like to have a directory of sorts so we could quickly reference each name to be able to know where to deliver items right away. This could be in the form of a census, which could be a scenario in itself. Other ideas are to create a short biography of those willing to have their persona recorded for members and guests to learn about.This register would allow the soldiers to know better just who their allies and nemesis are and let them be more creative in the interaction with the civilians.

I would think that a simple Town Directory would work. They did have them back then and if you would like to see a sample page of how they were laid out I would be happy to scan a page or two from the 1852 Tuolumne County directory or the 1850 San Francisco directory. If nothing else, the ads make good reading.

[Moder Ole]

Mr. Peebles,


A Town Directory would work best. I would like to see the samples, if you would be so kind as to share them. We have been attempting to re-create period advertising for ‘junk mail’ as well.

Mr. Anderson has sent me a copy of an 1860 census form which includes one of his relatives. The section on trades and professions is interesting reading.
Some of the categories include:

Dwelling –houses numbered in the order of visitation

The Name of every Person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1860, was in this family.

Color<White black, or mulatto

Profession, Occupation, or Trade of each Male Person over 15 years of age.

Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict

Persons over 20 y'rs of age who cannot read & write


Not that I am asking for all this information in the directory, it’s just some of the fascinating things you come across when you are looking for something else entirely. The ‘dumb, blind, insane, idiotic’ listing is one best left alone, for all of us that may qualify

In the AAR I neglected to mention one of the more unique items we delivered, besides the banana letter. On being told an item was perishable. We immediately delivered the package and on its opening witnessed the contents as a chicken’s foot. NOT a vulcanized chicken’s foot, an actual poultry M-1A chicken foot. Also the candied babies did arrive undamaged.

[Sam Slick, Clockmaker]

Originally Posted by Moder Ole

Mr. Peebles,


A Town Directory would work best. I would like to see the samples, if you would be so kind as to share them. We have been attempting to re-create period advertising for ‘junk mail’ as well.

Mike, I have sent 4 scans from directories to your email as listed here on WCC. The address didn't ring a bell, so if it has changed, please let me know.