Abstract This collection consists of eighteen letters, seventeen of which are by John C. Watkins and three of which are fragments, two by John C. and one by his wife, Harriet (Hattie) Watkins, primarilyl written by American Civil War. All were written to friends and family back home in Lowell, Massachusetts, first, when Watkins served as a private with the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in Suffolk, Virginia in 1862 and 1863; then while in Washington, DC, from 1864 to 1866; and, lastly, while serving...