A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie, credited to Joseph Benjamin Polley, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie by Joseph Benjamin Polley. Read in English by Dale Latham; asterix; Denise Nordell Whether written in camp, in hospital, or in hospitable home, the letters tell a plain, unvarnished, and true story of the observations and experiences, the impressions and feelings, of a soldier whose only personal regret is that he could not be one of those whose paroles at Appomattox are patents incontestable that they fought for the right as they saw it, as long as there was a hope to encourage them. Though not intended as history, they are historical in the respect that they narrate actual occurrences in camp, on the march, and in the battle. The lady to whom all but the last were addressed was no more a myth from 1861 to 1865 than now, when, a gray-haired wife, mother, and grandmother, she presides with the grace and dignity of the truest womanhood over the home made for her by the gallant officer of the Tennessee Army, her first and only beloved, whom she wedded shortly after the close of the war. To her soldier correspondent she was the friend of one more than a friend. It was not until March of 1865 that they ever met. Her letters kept him so well-advised of all that was transpiring in Texas, and were so friendly, entertaining, and altogether "charming," that, without leave or license, he substituted that adjective for the conventional "Miss" to which she was entitled. (Summary by J. B. Polley)

Recording facts

• Recording title: A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie
• Author credits: Joseph Benjamin Polley
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 29
• Listed recording duration: 8:37:26

Catalogue topics

• history
• letters
• civil war
• battle
• Virginia
• confederate army
• texas brigade
• hood's texans

Opening tracks: first 24 of 29

1. 00 - Introduction — 8:53
2. 01 - Early Experiences in Camp — 12:57
3. 02 - Humorous Incidents — 17:36
4. 03 - Around Yorktown — 19:44
5. 04 - Battle of Seven Pines — 13:40
6. 05 - Gaines' Mill — 14:31
7. 06 - Battle of Second Manassas — 15:21
8. 07 - Second Manassas, Continued — 18:07
9. 08 - Crossing Over Into Maryland — 14:32
10. 09 - Incidents at Fredericksburg — 18:20
11. 10 - In and Around Richmond — 25:20
12. 11 - After Chancellorsville — 14:49
13. 12 - Hood's Texans in Pennsylvania — 14:39
14. 13 - Gettysburg — 13:01
15. 14 - Reminiscences of Chickamauga — 12:17
16. 15 - Forage for Hog Meat — 23:33
17. 16 - A Battle 'Above the Clouds' — 18:15
18. 17 - Strenuous Times in Tennessee — 16:08
19. 18 - The Power of the Fiddle and the Bow — 16:39
20. 19 - Some 'Escape' Stories — 23:35
21. 20 - A Flight to Arms — 18:51
22. 21 - A Thirty Day Furlough — 17:46
23. 22 - Texas in the Battle of the Wilderness — 17:21
24. 23 - Fun in the Trenches — 16:22

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.