Seven Months a Soldier

A Civil War Story as told by the letters of Private Arnold Southwick and Mariah Harper Southwick. Tender, complaining, gossipy letters were sent back and forth between Nashville, Tennessee, where Pvt. Arnold Southwick was stationed during the final conflicts of the Civil War, and the Ohio community, where his wife, children, relatives, and friends fretted about the continuing terror. This Civil War story is based on the actual letters written by the great-grandparents of the editor and enriched by letters Arnold received from his family and neighbors in Big Island Township, Marion County, Ohio. Here is an inside look at the final seven months of America’s Civil War.