Finding Fanny Whitney: The Civil War Letters of Charles E. Whitney

Charles went off to war in the Union Army in 1862 and served to the end of the war.

Charles Whitney 40th Mass Regiment Camp

More than 100 letters written by Charles E. Whitney to his family during the Civil War were preserved by Louise North Griffin, who lived on the Common, and were donated to the HHS by Dawn Webster in honor of her mother, Louise North Griffin and her stepfather David N. Griffin, to be transcribed and published. This summer, recent William and Mary history graduate and Harvard resident Charlotte Visconsi has begun the important work of transcribing the letters.

In this living history program, Charlotte portrays Fanny Whitney, presenting Charles’s early letters from the war and sharing the experiences and thoughts of a woman living at home while her brother went off to war.