John Southworth letters, 1863-1864

18th Massachusetts Regimental Flag

Public domain

Print of Andersonville Prison, Georgia. 1865 Sept. 28.

Library of Congress,

Prints and Photographs Division

Location: Duxbury Rural and Historical Society, Drew Archival Library (Duxbury, Mass.)
Background: John Southworth (1843-1864) was born in Duxbury, Mass., to James Southworth and Lucy Ann Benner. He joined the 18th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Company E in 1861 and died at the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga., in 1864.
Contents: Six letters written to Emma Cushing Paulding in Duxbury from her cousin and soldier, John Southworth. In his last letter to Emma, written on April 10th, only a few months before his death he wrote the following:

"You say I don't think enough of myself, ah yes I do Emma, I think I am as good as anybody ... But I don't know as I am good enough to go with a girl. I think they are a higher grade of human beings than men. They don't take part in the abominable, diabolical war. I can't say anything bad enough about it ... I'm afraid of shot and shell, I have had too many of them sing around my head already and I never want to hear another one fired at them, don't know how dreadful they sound."

Although John did not make it home, his brother Walter did, marrying a local girl named Emma Chandler and raising a family in Duxbury. As for Emma, a few years after the War, she married George Bartlett Bates of Kingston, Mass., and had five children. She died in 1930 at the age of 87.

Forms part of the the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society's Emma Cushing Paulding letters, 1859-1874.

(See the NUCMC catalog record)