By Brian D. Kowell
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in December 2023.
“If I could only see her once more, I feel that exile would lose its terror.”1
“[I] am growing very anxious to rec. letters, especially . . . fr. VBM . . . [she] is my chief source of anxiety. I fear I may have to go to some foreign land without ever bidding adieu to my best & most loved friend.”2
“Am at a loss to hear from VBM. Must see her on my release at all events.”3
So wrote Ohio soldier James Parks Caldwell in his diary. Countless soldiers in the Civil War wrote to their wives and sweethearts, longing to see them. What makes Caldwell’s situation unique is that he was imprisoned at Johnson’s Island Prison in Sandusky Bay, Ohio, and his sweetheart was a rebel spy.
Continue reading “The Sweetheart of a Sigma Chi”