Toward a More Perfect Union: The Civil War Letters of Frederic and Elizabeth Lockley

Toward a More Perfect Union is an extraordinary book of husband-and-wife letters written during the Civil War, selected from the Frederic E. Lockley Collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Appearing here are 162 letters exchanged between Frederic Lockley and his wife Elizabeth, chosen from 405 letters preserved in the collection.

The survival of such two-way exchanges is rare. Few soldiers in the field had the opportunity to save letters from home. The Lockleys’ selected letters narrate a chronological three-year story, from 1862 to 1865. When Frederic enlisted at thirty-seven, he and Elizabeth promised each other they would write twice a week and, for the most part, they did. These are not average letters. A published author, Frederic was remarkably insightful and articulate and Elizabeth was literate and expressive as well.

Although primarily a love story set during the Civil War, Toward a More Perfect Union also offers ample military material, some not well represented elsewhere in Civil War literature. Frederic wrote of life in garrison duty in defense of Washington, manning the siege lines at Petersburg, and guarding Union parolees and Confederate prisoners of war. But his letters also show strong ties to home and his need for those ties in order to maintain his own mental and emotional equilibrium in the face of the horrors of war.

Elizabeth’s letters reflect an urban setting and the perspective of a young, recently married woman who spent much of her time parenting three young children from Frederic’s first marriage. In fact, children and parenting assume a theme in Fred and Lizzie’s correspondence almost as constant and consequential as the war itself.

Providing background and framework for these exceptional letters, editor Charles E. Rankin’s introduction and contextualization create a continuous narrative that allows readers to follow these correspondents through a time critical to their marriage and to our nation’s history.
 

Charles E. Rankin is the retired editor in chief and associate director of the University of Oklahoma Press. Prior to that he was the director of publications for the Montana Historical Society. He is the editor or coeditor of Wallace Stegner: Man and Writer; Legacy: New Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn; and Trails: Toward a New Western History.