Atlas plate · Washington, July 1861
If I Do Not Return
A letter home from camp, written as if it might outlive him.
From one shore toward the other. A path of relation, not a lineage.
From
Camp Clark, Washington
Between
the army’s next movement, First Bull Run a week away
Toward
Smithfield
Placement is approximate where the record is not a surveyor.
- From
- Camp Clark, Washington
- Toward
- Smithfield, Rhode Island
- Between
- the early road of a civil war
- Distance
- about 550 km between a camp and a marriage
- Obstacle
- the army’s next movement, First Bull Run a week away
- Beloved
- Sarah Ballou
- Time apart
- the weeks of camp, then the forever the letter feared
- Message delay
- paper home, if the paper is even his first hand
- Boundary crossed
- civilian life for a major’s commission
- What stands between them
- a war that was not beautiful, and a famous text that may have been polished later