A Civil War Valentine
Posted by Anna Khomina on Tuesday, 02/14/2017
During the Civil War, Creed A. Lay, serving in the 40th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, sent this elaborately cut letter to his wife Sarah. Lay filled in the hearts with short, amusing rhymes about love and friendship, commonly written by friends in autograph albums:
Let not your friendship be like the rose to sever: But, like the evergreen, may it last forever!
Except (sic) my friend these lines from me they show that I remember thee and hope some thought they will retain till you and I shall meet again.
Long may you live happy may you be when you get married come and see me.
There is a small and simple flower that twines around the humble cot and in the sad and lonely hour it whispers low forget me not.
Lay’s letter created some lighthearted amusement in the midst of war. Inside one heart he wrote, "pleas (sic) forgive me for writing so much nonsense here."