Milroy for Kids -- Selected Stories

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About the letters

The letters written by General Milroy and his family are the kinds of letters you might send to your grandparents today. Misspelled words are common, and the letters sometimes use slang common to that time period. If you come across a word you don't understand, check a dictionary or ask an adult to help read the letters with you.

For help on reading the pages, be sure to look at our page on Working With the Collection.

These documents contain some interesting stories in the collection:

The Ice Skating Party
Gen. Milroy's daughter Ella talks about an ice skating party on the Iroquois River on Christmas Day, 1863.

Human Pygmies Found in Tennessee
Gen. Milroy writes home, and in the last few pages of the letter talks about an archaelogical dig he attended, where the diggers found bones that appeared to be from small humans (pygmies), along with clay pots.

A typical day at home
Ella Milroy writes about her math lessons and the trees coming into fruit in Rensselaer.

A typical day on the battlefield
Gen. Milroy writes to his wife about battles in the mountains near Monterey, West Virginia, in 1862.

General Milroy and his staff on Lookout Mountain
1863 Photo

President Lincoln Assassinated
An official Military Telegraph announcing the attacks on President Lincoln and Sec. of State W. H. Seward the night before. (Read more about it at the Library of Congress website.)