Scope and Content Melville Nickerson, of the 2nd Maine Infantry, wrote a long letter to his sister on September 21, 1861, during the American Civil War. He starts off the letter saying it will be a long letter, and then on September 24th he adds that he had not had a chance to write again because he was on duty and the rest of the letter is added on then. He has been working on cutting down trees so they have better range with their guns. The letter is written with an old fashioned quill pen. He describes...