The Last Letter a Soldier Wrote His Wife Before He Died

On the night of July 14, 1861, a Union officer named Sullivan Ballou sat in a camp outside Washington and wrote to his wife, Sarah — in case he never came home. One week later, at the First Battle of Bull Run, he was mortally wounded; he died of his wounds days afterward. This is his letter, read aloud and uninterrupted — one of the most beautiful love letters in American history. "Sarah, my love for you is deathless… if I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name." Sarah never remarried. She outlived him by more than fifty years and was buried beside him. — Chapters — 0:00 The night he wrote it 0:16 "My very dear Sarah" 1:18 "My love for you is deathless" 1:59 "It will whisper your name" 3:13 "Come to me" — Sullivan's goodbye 3:27 One week later — About this channel — The Letters We Kept brings you real letters from history, read aloud and left to speak for themselves. No talking heads, no over-explaining — just the words, the way they were written. — Sources & notes — Letter text: "Letter from Major Sullivan Ballou to His Wife Sarah" (July 14, 1861), public-domain transcription (Wikisource; American Battlefield Trust). Read verbatim, lightly trimmed for length, never altered. Historical detail: Ballou was mortally wounded at First Bull Run on July 21, 1861, and died July 26, 1861 (Rhode Island Historical Society, Mss277; National Park Service). The original letter is lost; surviving manuscripts are period copies.