Letters

This is an example of a letter written during the Civil War.

Writing letters was one way people communicated during the Civil War. People sent letters from wherever they were to wherever they wanted. Many soldiers wrote letters to their family and how they felt about the war. The letters were then mailed to the designated person.

Sometimes, people even wrote diary entries to themselves to help them remember what happened, when it happened, and what they were doing when it happened.

The Telegraph

The Telegraph was probably the most important form of communication during the Civil War. The first electric telegraph was made in 1835 by Samuel Morse. The electric telegraph sent electric signals through wires to the destination, and once the signal was sent, the other person had to read the message through dots and dashes - which was part of the Morse Code. As armies moved around, they set up signal towers so that they could send messages to different places.

Pictures and Sketches

This is an artist sketching a scene of a battle.

Pictures and Sketches was one form of communication during the Civil War. Prior to cameras, artists were sent out by different newspapers to go and sketch the battlefield. The artists then took their pictures back to the newspaper, where they were published.

Newspapers

This is a Newspaper Cart and Vendor at an Army Camp

Newspapers were a form of communication during the Civil War. Newspaper reporters traveled by horse and wagon to cover the war. Stories of the war were sent back to their newspaper to be published. Newspapers not only took news of the war back to the rest of the country, but also brought news from home to the soliders.

Photography

Sam Cooley, a Photographer

Photography was one of the methods of communication during the Civil War. Photography allowed people to see what was going on the battlefield without being there at the time. Though, the process was very long and tedious. Photographers had to carry all of their equipment onto the battlefield by wagon.

The process to take a photograph was very complicated. First, the photographer had to make a chemical mixture for the camera called collodion by hand, and collodion contained many harmful acids. Then, the mixture was applied to the glass plate, put in a darkroom and covered with silver nitrate, and then the plate was put onto the camera and then the photographer uncovered the plate for 2-3 seconds, which imprinted the picture onto the glass.