Political statements
Soldiers inscribed political statements of various sorts, in the form of writing and images.
Slogans or rallying cries are a recurrent example of such writing - 'Down with traitors' or 'Death to traitors." While those phrases are in a sense directed at the enemy, they are not addressed directly to them in the way longer passages are.
Soldiers also went beyond writing their units to inscribe broader identities that had political resonaces. A striking example is "Army of the United States of America" written in large text around the corner of a room in the Graffiti House. The army of the Northern states was the US Army, but was more commonly called the Union Army or Federal Army.
Some political writing appears akin to textual images rather than writing - a decorated "Union" in Morgan Chapel, for example.
Other examples (no images)
- Two men added "Death to Traitors" to their signatures (Roeder's Store)
Other examples of graffiti reported by soldiers in their letters:
- "U. S. Grant: May he be hung, drawn, and quartered: Hung with the laurels of victory, drawn in the chariot of peace, and quartered in the White House." (St James Church, letter from Private John Haley, 17th Maine)
