I have struggled somewhat with how to arrange the following material. Instead of telling you about the material and the people, I am just going to first introduce the letters. Be assured that it is easy to use the menu at the bottom of this page to jump to other topics.
Below are links to images of two letters written in 1865, April 16 and May. Each letter is “two sided”. Instead of one image, they are each two. Worse than that, the first image gives you pages 1 and 4, the second 2 and 3. Think of it this way, the front of the letter shows this: 
The back of the letter, the second image, shows this:
With a little imagination, maybe folding a piece of paper, you can see that the letter writers used one sheet of paper, folded it, and then wrote 4 pages. The paper is written on both the front and the back so we have to have two images to show it to you. The first has pages 1 and 4 of the letter with 1 on the RIGHT! and the second has pages 2 and 3 with 3 on the right.
You might be able to read some of letter 2. Letter 1 is VERY faded.
Letter 1, April 16, 1865. Click here to open letter pages 1 and 4 in a new tab. Click here to open pages 2 and 3.
Letter 2, only dated May 1895. Click here to open letter pages 1 and 4 in a new tab. Click here to open pages 2 and 3.
Next we offer you a much easier way to actually read the letters. In the above links to the images of the actual letters, we sent you outside this WordPress site. With reading the transcribed typed text, we will not do so but instead keep you in WordPress and you can further move around using the menu at the bottom of the letter pages. Why are the transcript lines of the letter so short? I do that to facilitate proof reading. If the letter writer starts a new line, I start a new line. Makes it easier to find my place when correcting. Click here to read letter 1, both pages and Click here to read the complete letter 2. In both cases, especially regarding the second, the May letter, additional material has been added to put the events talked about in historical context.
I had no idea when I started that the letters have something in common. Cleaning out an old house you may have come across newspaper issues from important events days. Pearl Harbor, the end of WW1. These letters were saved because they all reference the same important event, the assassination of President Lincoln.
Please think of these next paragraphs as under construction. Here is a third letter. It is only on 2 panels, the front and back of a page, instead of the 4 panels we have been dealing with.
Letter 3, April 16, 1865. From Sarah to Lizzie. Click here to open letter page 1 in a new tab. Click here to open pages 2 in a new tab. Click here to read letter 3, both pages.