Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

[California Republic]

All,

I didn't have any luck when searching the forum, but hopefully you all can help me: I have read/heard many times about soldiers writing "criss cross" letters, that is, writing part of a letter on a piece of paper then giving the page a quarter turn and writing the rest of the letter on the same page with the lines perpendicular to and crossing through each other. Does anyone have or has anyone seen images of original letters written this way? I would like to have one such example of this to show students when I do programs and talks. I considered trying to do one myself, but my grade school cursive is a sorry substitute for 1860s handwriting. If anyone has an image they can share, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Silas]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Seen some ; yes. Recall the sources ; no. Pretty darned hard to read is what I recall about them. Glad someone else figured out what was written because they were hard to follow.

Ruler applied to blank paper helps the reader understand the letters as there is no line, but the letters "g" and "y" can be pretty tough for the writer to produce.

[Poague41stVA]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Jeremiah,

Try doing some searches on cross hatching on the web. As this is what it is commonly referred as. You may want to put the words writing or letters in your search as the term is also used in describing a technique in pencil drawings.

http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/tutorial/crisscross.htm

Dave Bushmole

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Yeah I was looking at a collection of letters at the Virginia Historical Society last week written in this style. They are difficult to read but it can be done with a super-trained eye (though it is NOT pleasant). Lucky for me usually the part cross-hatched was usually the end of a letter with some closure message. Still some letters as Silas notes are impossible to read because of the writer's poor handwriting, fading, splitting of paper, etc.

I wish I could think of a letter that is photographed and online but you might try eBay. The practice was not only common to soldiers but society at large and even before the war.

[California Republic]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

All,

Thanks for the replies. The example on the Yale library site will probably do as an example to show students, but I will continue looking. For those of you who have seen originals, would you say that "most" letters only have partial cross-hatching? I don't want to be hyperbolic when describing how often this handwriting technique was used.

[OlszowyTM]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Not exactly criss cross but interesting-- the original letter resides in the Reeder Collection, AHEC

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Terri,

THAT I have never seen before! Very artistic.

Jeremiah: I am guessing you mean that of the letters that have cross hatching, how much of the letter is in that format? Generally, from the letters I have seen which are generally fairly long, it's a person who has used two or more pieces of paper to write the letter. Usually the last paragraph or so is the part that gets crossed has been my experience with cross-hatched letters.

[OlszowyTM]

Re: Soldiers' "criss-cross" letters

Emmanuel- It is a pretty cool one of a kind letter. That guy had waaayyyyy too much time on his hands. Wonder if any reenactors would ever duplicate something like that? I'd certainly enjoy & appreciate the receipt of such a letter! There is another missive in the file that is a "Christmas" card. It is done with all dots made by a pen tip.