Civil War Soldiers and Express Services

 

In the present-day “can’t get here fast enough” world of package and mail delivery, it is somewhat comforting to know that Civil War soldiers, too, relied on express companies to eagerly send and receive items they deemed necessary for both comfort and survival.

Chaplain E. L. Clark, 12^th Massachusetts Infantry remarked that a kind donor provided “$14 for the express of my library to the regiment.” However, “It just paid the freight,” he complained. But he seemed proud that his regiment now had “400 books and 500 magazines in circulation among our boys.” Cecil B. Fogg of the 36^th Ohio Infantry was on the lookout for an expected overcoat. “My overcoat has not arrived yet, but I suppose it is safe as it is in the hands of the Express boat,” he wrote his father in December 1863. In January, he still did not have his coat, but indicated, “If it don’t come, I will get paid for it by the Express Co.” Similarly, Confederate commissary officer Maj. Thomas K. Jackson’s wife asked about his urgency for new footwear: “Uncle John received your letter and desires me to say the shoes are finished & wishes to know if he must send them by express,” she inquired.

Some soldiers sent their pay home via express. Adams Express was a popular choice for United States soldiers. Confederate soldiers often used the Southern Express Company. Capt. John Doty, 104^th Illinois wrote his brother from Chattanooga: “We were paid on Sunday last, and have sent part of my wages home to John, and suppose he has received it, or will by the time this reaches you. It will come by express from Springfield, Ill. . . . From here we have an express office, and that is the only safe way we have of sending money home,” he explained. Similarly, Pvt. John Downes, 35^th Iowa explained, “I sent father 75 dollars by express. I wish you would tell him to see to it, and if you please, write to me when he gets it.”

Speed of delivery was important to soldiers who were on the campaign and moved often. Pvt. Marcus S. Nelson, 14^th Missouri, wrote to “Friends at home” from Corinth, Mississippi: “If you send me those things by express, send them immediately, as we may be ordered away from here in the course of a few weeks, perhaps a few days.” A soldier in the 2^nd New Hampshire requested his siblings send a 25 to 50 pound box of maple sugar. “You might nail it over a little, and mark on it, keep dry, and send it by express,” he wrote.

The express companies of the day often proved yet another vital line of communication and connection to the home front that soldiers depended on. Everything from pay, to care packages, to comrades’ last effects found their way to and from home and the front lines by using express services.