In the midst of the Civil War, a formerly enslaved young African American man sent this letter to his wife, informing her that he had enlisted in the Union Army. In two hand-written pages, Pvt. Samuel Cabble of the Massachusetts 55th (Colored) Volunteer Infantry, acknowledged the nation’s difficulties, but stated that he “looked forward to a brighter day when I shall have the opportunity of seeing you in the full enjoyment of freedom.”
Samuel Cabble survived the Civil War. Afterwards, he returned to Missouri to legally marry his wife, and together they moved to Denver, Colorado. He lived until about 1905 and died of kidney disease. When he wrote to his wife during the war of freedom and liberty, he had no way of knowing what the outcome for the nation or for he and his wife would be.
Text adapted from “Letters from George Washington and Samuel Cabble, and Speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy” in the November/December 2008 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
