The Archive / Season 1, Episode 12
The Cost
THE ARCHIVE Season 1, Episode 12: "The Cost" --- [ARCHIVAL NOTE: The following letters were never sent. They were found in pockets, in footlockers, in personal effects returned to grieving families. They represent final thoughts from soldiers who didn't survive to mail them. Spanning from the American Revolution to Afghanistan, these unsent letters remind us of the human cost of every war. Some names have been changed at family request. The words are preserved exactly as written.] --- [THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION] From: Private Thomas Greene, Continental Army Found in his coat pocket after the Battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776 My dearest Sarah, The cold is unbearable. We crossed the river last night in boats filled with ice, and I thought surely we would all drown. But we made it, and now we march on the Hessians. By the time you read this, the battle will be decided. I pray God grants us victory, for we desperately need one. The army is starving, freezing, losing men daily to desertion and disease. If we don't win something soon, I fear this revolution will die with us. I think of you constantly. Of our little farm in Massachusetts, of the fire you keep burning in the hearth, of the children whose faces I struggle to remember after so many months apart. Tell...