The Charles Whitney Civil War Letters Project

The Letters

Charles Whitney, with his parents Benjamin and Louisa and the rest of his large family, lived at 13 Fairbank Street before the war and moved to 2 Littleton Road after the war in 1868.   The Whitney family were among the earliest settlers in Harvard and were leading citizens. Many of the early houses in town were Whitney homes; Whitney Lane and Whitney Road are named for the family.

Charles enlisted at the beginning of the Civil War  in 1862, serving with Company B of the 40th Massachusetts Volunteers and served to the end. He lay 100 days in the trenches in front of Petersburg, VA, where from disease and bullets (affecting those higher in command) he was left the highest in command of his regiment.  He was one of the first to march into Richmond.
(taken from a handwritten biography of Charles Whitney at the Harvard Historical Society)

The Project

Brandon McGrath-Neely

Brandon will be organizing, imaging, and transcribing Charles’ letters over the course of this project.  The letters will be preserved archivally and the images and transcriptions will be available to researchers online.

“The rich collection of letters held by the HHS offers a special opportunity to get to know Charles as a person – not just some facts on a page. His letters are full of humor, boredom, gratitude, homesickness, and patriotism. I can’t wait to introduce you to his experience.”  – Brandon McGrath-Neely 

Brandon graduated in May from Simmons University with masters degrees in science and history.  He has engaged directly with the Civil War,  from making student documentaries with the Civil War Institute  to leading guided tours at Andersonville National Historic Site to writing administrative histories of Gettysburg National Military Park.

The Harvard Historical Society will be sharing some of what Charles wrote to his family in future emails.