Preferred Citation

[Item used], Henry C. Hart Correspondence, MS018, Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria, VA.

Biographical / Historical

Henry (Hank) C. Hart served in Company H, 204th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. His cousin, John C. Hart, was stationed at the Camp of the 100 P.E.E. in Petersburg, Virginia. Henry wrote to his parents who apparently were named John and Mary Nixon and who lived in Ohioville, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The discrepancy in the last names is unexplained by the letters.

Content Description

Most of these papers are letters from Henry C. Hart to his parents, John and Mary Nixon, who also received two letters from their nephew, John C. Hart. The letters relate to camp life in a number of Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. locations: Soldiers Rest, Alexandria; Camp or Fort Reynolds, D.C.; Fort Sumner, D.C.; Rectortown, Fauquier County; Vienna, Virginia; Flint Hill, Rappahannock County; and Fairfax Station. Henry writes about breaking colts for the army, his health, wounded comrades, and his needs for food, clothes, boots, writing paper and stamps. He describes his delight at seeing Washington for the first time.

There are also letters to the Nixons from Thompson Todd, and a bill for a list of merchandise to John Nixon from A.Y. Montgomery.

Arrangement

Henry C. Hart's letters are in chronological order and foldered by location. John C. Hart's, Thompson Todd's, and miscellaneous papers are at the end.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Military life -- 1860-1870
• Pennsylvania Volunteers, 204th Regiment (1864-1865)
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865