Toward a More Perfect Union

Toward a More Perfect Union is an extraordinary book of husband-and-wife letters written during the Civil War, selected from the Frederic E. Lockley Collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Appearing here are 162 letters exchanged between Frederic Lockley and his wife Elizabeth, chosen from 405 letters preserved in the collection. The survival of such two-way exchanges is rare. Few soldiers in the field had the opportunity to save letters from home. The Lockleys’ selected