Goodnight, goodbye

Letter released by the Toler family on Thursday in Flatwoods, WV, written by Martin Toler Jr who died in the Sago Mine. It reads, "Tell all I see them on the other side JR I love you It wasn't bad just went to sleep."

For Christmas, I gave my father a book about the US Civil War, based upon letters written during that time. The book had pockets nearly every other page with copies of the actual letters inside. There was one in particular that was stained with blood. It was written to his family by a soldier who lay mortally wounded, announcing his own death.

I find Martin Toler Jr's letter equally

affecting

adjective
Exciting a deep, usually somber response.

"affecting." Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Answers.com 07 . 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/affecting