At the time of the 1860 Federal Census, Jesse Hill (b. ca. 1828) and his wife, Emoline ( ca. 1829), were living on their small farm in Forsyth County, North Carolina with their two children. Jesse Hill enlisted in Co. K, 21st North Carolina Infantry on January 1, 1864. He was wounded in March 1865 and taken prisoner at Saylors Creek on April 6, 1865. He was confined at Newport News until his release on June 27, 1865. Census records indicate that Emoline could not read or write. Jesse Hill’s younger brother, Samuel, also served in Co. K. The Hills had family connections in neighboring Davidson County, where Jesse Hill’s wife and children were living when he wrote his letters, and where the the family was living at the time of the Census of 1870.