Communication between North and South during the American Civil War?

[Donnerwetter]

I was wondering if there were ways ordinary people could communicate during the Civil War across the front lines. Let’s say you lived in Atlanta and both your daughters had married men from the North before the war and were now living in Boston and New York.

Was there any way these people could keep in touch and share family news? Was there mail service, maybe via third countries like Canada?

Would it have been at all possible to travel from Atlanta to Boston during the Civil War (for strictly private reasons)?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Review of Amy Murrell Taylor. The Divided Family in Civil War America.

One of the most fascinating chapters within the work deals with the issue of “border crossing,” the passing of people, communication and ideas between North and South. The stigma attached to kinship with a treasonous relative was considerable, even if contact was minimal; travel between the two regions was discouraged, mail was intercepted, and suspicion bred. As was famously shown by the relationship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her sister, Martha Todd White, people found it hard to believe that family ties could endure between two different sides unless there was some impropriety involved (pp. 98-105). Nevertheless, many border residents strove to maintain their family ties within this oppressive atmosphere, attempting to maintain some semblance of normality.

The U.S. couldn’t afford to maintain a strict barrier between the sides so there was never a defined line that people couldn’t cross. The line of battle stretched across more than a thousand miles and through areas that were technically hostile after the first few victories pushed the Union troops southward. The border states were especially porous. Soldiers also wrote and carried mail and would seek out relatives to see if they were okay.

People with political connections were often given passes to go through the lines and passes were also given out for humanitarian reasons.

The Navy tried to maintain a blockade of Southern ports but that never worked perfectly. Foreign ships, northerners trying for some illicit profit, and Confederate blockade runners made it through and often carried mail and other communications. There was even some official mail services.

Though U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair discontinued exchange of mail between North and South on Jun e1, 1861, private companies were allowed to carry mail across the border for a short time. The Adams Express Company and the American Letter Express Company both carried letters across the border. The American Letter Express Company would forward all north-bound letters to Nashville and south-bound letters to Louisville, Kentucky. Blair discontinued the practice on August 26, 1861. …

On February 16, 1862, Nashville was captured by Union troops and was under Union control for the rest of the war. The city became a hub for mail traveling between the North and Union-controlled parts of the South.

The short answer is that communications were greatly curtailed but never shut off.

[carnivorousplant]

David O. Dodd was moving between Union and Confederate lines when arrested for spying.

[Donnerwetter]

So let’s say somebody who is from the South and resides there somehow had managed to cross the line. Would he have been treated as an enemy alien in the North (like citizens of the axis powers were during WW II)?

[gnoitall]

@Donnerwetter

So let’s say somebody who is from the South and resides there somehow had managed to cross the line. Would he have been treated as an enemy alien in the North (like citizens of the axis powers were during WW II)?

It doesn’t seem likely to me. To be an alien, the border-crosser would have to be a citizen of a foreign power, and the Union never recognized the sovereignty of the CSA. A Southerner would simply be a citizen of the Union and of a State of the Union which was currently in a condition of rebellion.

Could a Southerner have been arrested as a potential spy or saboteur, or as a “peace activitist” or other political opponent of the Union government? Seems very likely, without regard to whether the arrestee had just entered Union territory or was a long-standing politician with an opposition point of view.

[Sailboat]

@gnoitall

Could a Southerner have been arrested as a potential spy or saboteur, or as a “peace activitist” or other political opponent of the Union government? Seems very likely, without regard to whether the arrestee had just entered Union territory or was a long-standing politician with an opposition point of view.

While I agree with your point and I realize you were using Vallandigham’s case as an abstract example, for the general reader’s benefit I would like to point out that Clement Vallandigham was actually a Northerner (born in Ohio, attended school in Pennsylvania, and sought political office in Ohio).

[Little_Nemo]

@Exapno_Mapcase

There was even some official mail services.

Not the Civil War but I recently read about how the German postal service kept running during the Battle of Berlin. Even in the final days when the city had been surrounded and the Soviets and the Germans were fighting in the streets, mailmen were still out delivering the daily mail.

[Grrr]

I remember some guy on the History channel talking about how sometimes a soldier would be caught, but instead of actually putting him in prison, they would make him sign a waiver stating that he would not fight in the war unless his “release” was negotiated.

He would be released but still considered a POW.

Ha! Seriously, if they were willing to put that much faith in ntheir enemy’s word, I can’t, for the life of me, imagine how they would have a problem with regular folk who just want to see their family.

[Donnerwetter]

@Shakes

I remember some guy on the History channel talking about how sometimes a soldier would be caught, but instead of actually putting him in prison, they would make him sign a waiver stating that he would not fight in the war unless his “release” was negotiated.

He would be released but still considered a POW.

Ha! Seriously, if they were willing to put that much faith in ntheir enemy’s word, I can’t, for the life of me, imagine how they would have a problem with regular folk who just want to see their family.

That was actually a common practice in many wars.

[cckerberos]

@Little_Nemo

Not the Civil War but I recently read about how the German postal service kept running during the Battle of Berlin. Even in the final days when the city had been surrounded and the Soviets and the Germans were fighting in the streets, mailmen were still out delivering the daily mail.

They actually released new stamps for sale in Berlin on April 21st, the beginning of the Soviet bombardment and the last day most post offices were open. I’ve always found that kind of amazing.

[Donnerwetter]

The way in which many parts of the German administration continued to function in 1945 is indeed remarkable. For instance, the German pension system (the equivalent of Social Security in the US) only missed one monthly payment in it’s history, and that was for the month of May 1945.