Scope and Contents:
This collection contains one letter from Lieutenant Madison R. Hailey to his father, written from Decatur, Tennessee. Hailey expressed his anger and dismay that, “our company has been overrun by Lincolnites,” referring to supporters of Abraham Lincoln and Union soldiers. Hailey stated that his health is poor, and that he was unable to tell his father his feelings regarding the “Nashville affair.” (The “Nashville Affair” refers to the surrender of Confederate troops in February 1862 to the Union Army at Nashville, Tennessee.) Finally, he asked his father to write to him and to not, “…look for me till you see me dead or when every Lincolnite is killed between me and home.”
Biographical/Historical Context:
Lieutenant Madison R. Hailey was a Tennessee Confederate Lieutenant from McNairy County, Tennessee. He joined Company I, 154
th Tennessee Volunteers in May 1861 and was elected as a 2nd Lieutenant shortly after joining. Hailey died of unknown causes on May 3, 1862, less than two months after writing this letter.
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