Series 5: Family Letters, 1870-1879

The Winston Papers consist mostly of the correspondence between Thomas Winston and his wife Caroline Mumford Winston during the three and a half years he was at war (1862-1866; he spent six months at home in late 1864 and early 1865). Also present is a small collection of later family correspondence.

Both Winston and his wife Caroline were articulate and expressive writers. Winston in particular imparts a vivid picture of what he saw and did while encamped with the Illinois 92nd, while also discussing at length many of the most vital and controversial issues of the time. Winston spends much time pondering issues of slavery and race relations. In his descriptions of the frustrations and "red tape" he encountered when finding hospitals for sick men and his opinions on other surgeons, Winston also delivers a full account of the state of military medicine during the Civil War. Contemporary politics, Winston's participation in the Prohibition Party and his land in Nebraska are discussed in the later family letters written by Thomas Winston, Caroline Mumford Winston and their children (1870s-1910s). The Winston Papers would be of interest to those studying the Civil War and late nineteenth-century America in general, as well as to those interested in American medical history.