Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Carvel Arnold (1833-1865) span the years 1856-1937, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1864-1875. The collection consists principally of correspondence of Arnold with his wife, Mary Ann Arnold, while he served in Company I, 49th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, and in which he records his views on the military situation in Virginia and Maryland (1864-1865), the Copperheads, the rebels, army rations and pay, family finances, and her problems of maintaining a home and educating the children. The correspondence between Mary Ann Arnold and her children dates primarily from the time of the children’s attendance at the McAlisterville Soldiers’ Orphan School after the Civil War. Mary Ann Arnold was unable to write, thus none of the correspondence in the collection is in her own handwriting.