Clara Barton's 'Letter To Her Cousin Vira'

Clara Barton, in the 1862 letter to her cousin Vira, explains the despair of the camp before the battle. She supports her claim by the use of imagery, length of sentences, and personification of death. She writes in an informal tone for her cousin sharing her dread. The author’s purpose is to inform her cousin of the anxiety felt throughout the camp over the Battle of Fredericksburg. Barton uses imagery to create awareness of the gloominess of the situation at hand. It was on the eve of a battle on December 12th. She has little hope for what is to come. “The guns of the enemy will sweep those frail bridges at every breath,” and, “I have stood alone in the awful stillness of its glimmering light gazing upon the strange sad scene around me striving to say, ““Thy will Oh God be Done.”’ These two excerpts show the depth of her despair and the terrible gloom that has come over her. This was to help Vira understand how desperate the situation was, and that they are truly in need of prayer and sympathy.
The long sentences in her letter are normally asides like, “ The camp fires blaze with unwanted brightness, the sentry’s tread is still but quick- the acres of little shelter tents are dark and still as death, no wonder for us as I gazed sorrowfully upon them.” While the short are only one word such as “Oh!” The long sentences tend to be asides where she goes into long moments of revery. While the Oh’s are added because of the informal tone of the letter. This is a letter to her cousin who she most likely feels easy to confide in. The Oh’s show that this is the letting off of her burdens to her cousin who she is writing to in a style like she is talking face to face with