Source

State Archives of Florida, Collection N2005-9

Description

Letter from John D. Pittman to his mother, Martha W. Pittman, written while he was a student at the University of Virginia. He discusses his time at school, the election of 1860 and the likelihood of Abaraham Lincoln becoming president. Pittman expresses his displeasure at the possibility of Lincoln winning and says "If he is, I reckon we will have to quit this University - take muskets and go to fighting! I hope this will not be."

Date

1860-11-06

Creator

Pittman, John D., 1843-1862

Format

Letters (correspondence)

Coverage

Civil War Florida (1861-1865)

Topic

Military And Veterans

Subjects

American Civil War--United States--Collected Correspondence
American Civil War--letters and diaries
Blackshear, Mary Jane Pittman, 1826-1852
Civil War, 1861-1865
Civil war
Florida -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Pittman, Martha Whitehead, 1801-1875
White, Anne "Annie" Eliza Pittman, 1834-1903

Geographic Term

Marianna
Jackson County
Charlottesville (Va.)

General Note

John Dawson Pittman (1843-1862) was a student at the University of Virginia in 1860-1862. His parents, Col. James J. Pittman and Martha W. Pittman (nee Dickens), lived in Jackson County, Florida, where they raised John and his siblings (only one of the 10 children survived after 1862). John left the university in the spring of 1862 to join the Confederate Army. He enlisted in Marianna, Florida, in May 1862, served in Company E of the Eighth Florida Infantry Regiment, and was killed on August 31, 1862, during the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run) in Virginia.