Letters & Diaries
letters
Smiley Family (1861-1865)
Before the war, Thomas M. Smiley resided on the family farm in Augusta County, Virginia. At the age of nineteen, Smiley enlisted as a private in Company D of the 5th Virginia Infantry. He received a promotion to sergeant in 1863 and was captured in 1864 and imprisoned, but later released. He sustained injuries to the hand and face at Chancellorsville, but survived the war and returned to his family, dying near Moffet’s Creek in 1920.
The following links provide access to the most likely matches in the Valley of the Shadow databases:
Smiley Household
Letters
Most of the letters in this collection are of a correspondence between Letitia R. Smiley and her sister Mary. The letters discuss daily life including health, school, activities with friends, and other general information.