{"id":43,"date":"2013-11-19T15:58:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T21:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1966classnews\/?p=43"},"modified":"2014-05-30T15:17:40","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T20:17:40","slug":"jim-dohren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/2013\/11\/19\/jim-dohren\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Dohren ’66"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Letters<\/a><\/div>\n

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Jim Dohren is the author of a new book,\u00a0Letters from a Shoebox<\/i>, that has been published by Sunbury Press.<\/div>\n
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The book is based on a collection of Civil War letters passed on to him in a shoebox by family members. \u00a0His book is unusual among similar collections because it balances the letters from soldiers in the field with those of five young women, kin and neighbors, all showing concerns for one other’s welfare and most especially for news in the form of another letter.<\/div>\n

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Jim spent several years studying and researching the correspondence, which has enabled him to provide the reader with context and meaning for the letters.\u00a0 The book offers\u00a0not only the results of his research, but also his personal reflections on the letter writers and the times.<\/div>\n
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In all, there are 22 letters that he has transcribed, preserving the vagaries of grammar and spelling prevalent at the time. \u00a0The letters offer insights into the daily life of military campaigns\u00a0and life on the home front. \u00a0Scattered throughout are prints taken from pictures\/paintings of battles and places mentioned in the letters. \u00a0Toward the\u00a0end of the book, Jim provides an after-the-war update on the family.<\/div>\n
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The soldiers writing home are John and David Huffman, school teacher brothers enlisted in the 85th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and William Bowman, a young hired hand who enlisted in the storied 126th Ohio.<\/div>\n
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The 85th Indiana eventually joined the Army of the Cumberland and Sherman’s March-to-the-Sea. \u00a0Letters are written from various places along the march. \u00a0Bowman is an orphan farm boy who becomes part of The Army of The Potomac. \u00a0He is captured in the Battle of the Wilderness and spends many months in Confederate prisons at Libby and Florence, S.C. \u00a0One of the letters is from infamous Andersonville, letting his friends know that he is a prisoner there. \u00a0Bowman\u00a0manages through luck and courage to survive that abominable place.<\/div>\n

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The replies from home are written by the Huffman brothers’ sisters, sister-in-law and a young friend. \u00a0They are filled with concern for the soldiers, plus fascinating news of sickness and death, joys and sorrows, romance and other poignant activities of everyday life.<\/div>\n

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Jim is a retired history teacher who resides in Downer’s Grove, Ill. \u00a0He\u00a0can be contacted at jsdohren@AOL.com.<\/div>\n
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Letters from a Shoebox<\/i>\u00a0can be purchased at the Sunbury Press web site at\u00a0www.sunburypress.com<\/a>\u00a0and through Amazon.com. \u00a0It’s also available as an e-book to download to electronic reading devices.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Jim Dohren is the author of a new book,\u00a0Letters from a Shoebox, that has been published by Sunbury Press.   The book is based on a collection of Civil War letters passed on to him in a shoebox by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/1960sclassnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}