FEATURE - Rich new detail on U.S. Civil War unearthed .
Leila Corcoran
WASHINGTON 1996-08-29
A freed black man writes to his still-enslaved wife , a mother pleads with Abraham Lincoln on behalf of her son and a maimed soldier poses for an official photograph in newly reopened records that bring the U.S. Civil War back to life .
Working in the basement of the National Archives , members of the Civil War Conservation Corps are organising the military records of volunteers who fought for the North so that they can be preserved on microfilm .
The faded documents have been stowed away in the Archives since it opened in 1935 and have rarely seen the light of day .
Each soldier 's file is a gold mine of information : enlistment papers , muster rolls , medical records , discharge certificates , letters and photographs .
Since the project began almost two years ago , corps volunteers have focused on African American troops , preparing records in time for the unveiling in Washington this year of a special memorial to black soldiers who fought in the war .
More than 185,000 black soldiers fought and 37,000 died .
In one letter , a black soldier heading South wrote his wife , " though great is the present national difficulties yet I look forward to a brighter day when I shall have the oportunity of seeing you in the full enjoyment of freedom .
" I would like to no ( sic ) if you are still in slavery if you are , it will not be long before we shall have crushed the system that now oppreses you for in the course of three months you shall have your liberty .
Great is the outpouring of the coloured people that is now rallying with the heart of lions against the very curse that has separated you and me . "
In another letter dated January 1865 , a well-to-do Washington matron wrote to Lincoln to plead for her son , who faced a dishonourable discharge from the Army . "
James is a prisoner for a thoughtless act of folly , while those who have done nothing for the cause are free , " she wrote .
Lincoln 's notation on the letter read : " If his colonel will say in writing on this sheet he is willing to receive this man back to the regiment , I will pardon and send him . "
The soldier was subsequently pardoned .
While the letters speak to the anguish of separation , a photograph of a black amputee speaks to the terrible physical cost of the war .
In a picture required for his military discharge , Pvt .
Lewis Martin , with haunted eyes , posed bare-chested to reveal his missing arm and leg , blown off during a battle at Petersburg , Virginia , in July 1864 .
The work on black troops has provided new insight into the rhythms of plantation talk and culture , said John Simon , professor of history at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and editor of Gen .
Ulysses Grant 's papers .
" These ( writings ) are not only poetic but a linguistic treasure trove .
This is the first generation of African Americans that really can express itself without fear and punishment , " Simon said .
" I think there 's probably a whole lot of material that would expand our understanding of the sociology of the war , " said Edward Smith , director of American Studies at American University in Washington .
The war between the North and South raged for nearly four years , claimed the lives of half a million Americans and forever seared the nation 's consciousness .
Southern records have already been preserved .
They were put on microfilm about 30 years ago through a grant from the United Daughters of the Confederacy .
The Civil War Conservation Corps is mostly retirees joined by students during the school year .
Director Budge Weidman , who has shepherded the project from the beginning , predicts it will take up to a decade to complete .
The work was inspired by a National Park Service plan to put computer databases at Civil War battlefields across the country so that Americans might research their ancestors .
The records also provide insight into medical thinking of the day .
One soldier was discharged because of " mental incapacity and inebetude ( sic ) of the brain , alleged by the Patient to be connected with a fall on the head but believed to arise from long continued and excessive masturbation . "