Lone cannon at Manassas National Battlefield Park (Battle of Bull Run)

As we have just finished a wonderful season celebrating blessings bestowed by our Savior, one of the foremost of these blessings is the divinely instituted government of the United States of America .  The price for establishing this unique form of government was dear. 

Ronald and Elaine Knight of Salt Lake City , Utah , served a Family and Church History mission in Washington , D.C. digitizing Civil War records.  The following famous letter that they discovered in the National Archives (many are familiar with this one) illustrates the price that some have paid for this unparalleled blessing.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts , that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.  I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.  But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.  I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln.

This letter was written by President Lincoln to Mrs. Bixley of Boston, Massachusetts.  It was dated  November 21, 1864.

How do we have access to this amazing letter and tens of thousands of other pieces of priceless information?

The Widow's Pension Files of the Civil War have occupied the shelves of the National Archives and Records Administration for years and many have not been touched since being placed there many years ago.  The Knights discovered that there were over 600,000 soldiers who had perished during the Civil War, two-thirds dying from disease.  The United States Government established a Pension Bureau for the widows of these deceased soldiers and those widows had to submit many verifying, original documents establishing their relationship to the deceased soldier.  These files contain original marriage certificates, death certificates, listings of all children by name, birth date, and other vital information.  The average file consists of approximately 30 to 40 documents, though some are as few as one, or as many as several hundred.

The pensions, incidentally, amounted to about $8.00 per month!

Although many of these files have been microfilmed, a person would have to spend hours searching through many reels of microfilm to find an ancestor's name.  Now through the marvel of the computer and digital photography, names will be entered into the computer and with the touch of a button will be displayed with their associated historical information.

When the Knights arrived on their mission in September 2007, they were told that they would be devoting their full time to taking digital pictures of the Widow's Pension Files for FamilySearch. Out of the 67,000 boxes of files on the shelves of the environmentally-controlled storage rooms of the National Archives, the Knights started with Box # 1 which contained 25 folders.  The 25th folder held information about a soldier, Sullivan Ballou, who wrote the following tender letter to his wife on July 14, 1861. [Editorʼs Note: This letter is known to many and was even used in part of the Broadway musical The Civil War.] It is humbling indeed, to note the willingness of this soldier to give his life to maintain his beloved government and to help pay the debt owed to those who had preceded him in the Revolutionary War.

July 14, 1861
Washington D.C.

Dear Sarah,

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow, and lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgiving about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter.  I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before through the blood and suffering of the revolution and I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain that government and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless.  It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break, and yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and binds me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield.  The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you that I have enjoyed them for so long.  And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes, the future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.

If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield it will whisper your name.  Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you.  How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been.

But, oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in the brightest day and the darkest night, always, always.  And when the soft breeze fans your cheek it shall be my breath and the cool air your throbbing temple it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead.  Think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again .

--

Sullivan Ballou, age 34, was killed a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run.  He was a Major in the Second Rhode Island Volunteers and the letter to his wife, Sarah, was penned one week before the battle.

The Church's FamilySearch unit had been negotiating with the National Archives for almost five years to obtain the privilege of taking these digital pictures which would be indexed and put on the Web for families to use in doing family history research.  In the historic agreement, it was stated that FamilySearch, in conjunction with Footnote.com, intended to digitize and index all 1,280,000 Civil War and later widows' files in the series.  It concluded by saying that FamilySearch would make the digitized materials available for free through www.FamilySearch.org and in 4500 family history centers worldwide.  The Knights were privileged to be present when this wonderful agreement was reached.

Ronald and Elaine Knight were amazed that older missionary couples could be taught the digitizing process since it is quite complicated.  But after several weeks of training, they learned how to accomplish the procedure. The Knights ultimately were taking about 900 pictures a day.  By the time they had completed a year, they had processed the files for 3,564 soldiers.  This is a small number compared to 600,000 but many missionaries and volunteers are presently working to reduce those numbers.

Unfortunately, time constraints prevented their reading most of the articles in the files they were photographing, but occasionally something would catch their attention and they would pause to read it.

Here is a letter entitled: Headquarters–8th Regiment “Irish Brigade” on the Battlefield June 2, 1862:  Letter to widow of Patrick Dunigan by his reporting officer–Patrick F. Clooney: 

Mrs. Dunigan:

Madame:

With feelings of the deepest commiseration I address this note to you to communicate what I know will be a deep blow to your heart and a source of affliction to you forever–namely the death of your husband–Patrick Dunigan which was occasioned by wounds received in bloody action yesterday June 1st, Sunday.

Words of mine fail to express to you the deep sorrow which has seized hold of all who were acquainted with him.  I mourn him as a brave and gallant soldier who following me as I bore the green flag of the republic triumphant in my hand at the head of the column fell nobly fighting by my side.

May your sorrows be a little eased by the recollection of his honesty, his calmness, his nobility of soul and finally his last noble efforts beside the flag of his native adopted fatherland.

His comrades mourn the fellowship of one whose life never amongst us had known a foe . . .

The Knights note that it is sobering to think that Abraham Lincoln was elected in November 1860, trying to defuse the South's threats to secede from the Union .  He admonished them to appeal to the “better angels of their nature.”  But in spite of his appeals, South Carolina withdrew a month later on December 20, 1860.   So, the prophecy made by Joseph Smith in December 1832 was fulfilled, stating 28 years before it occurred that “Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls . . .”  (D&C 87:1).

And yet out of every time of despair and sorrow, the Lord brings forth good fruits, and many of those are found in the records of the National Archives.

The Knights leave their testimony as follows:

“ Matthew 6:19  reads, ‘And I will give unto thee (speaking of Peter) the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'  This clearly has reference to the sealing power and makes it possible for families to be together forever if they comply with the Lord's commandments and qualify for this tremendous blessing.

“Can you imagine the joy it would be to go to the House of the Lord and there perform vicariously the sacred ordinances for these people?

“We were grateful to be at the forefront of  bringing to light these important documents that will be so valuable to individuals and families as they seek to connect with their ancestors–one of whom may have been a Civil War Soldier.”

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Brother Knight is a retired real estate broker, who received his MBA from the University of Utah, and then worked in the Bay Area and in Utah.   Among other callings he served as a bishop in the Holladay Stake of Salt Lake.   Sister Knight has been a full-time mother to their six children and 22 grandchildren.