Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832-1904) was an Italian-born colonel of the 11th New York Cavalry during the Civil War. Wounded and captured at the Battle of Aldie in June of 1863, he was sent to Libby Prison in Richmond. These letters to his American wife Mary Isabel describes his privations, his frustration with the system of exchange of officers, and his fading hopes for release.

In the first letter, dated 23 July 1863, di Cesnola responds to the news that he had become a father just days before his imprisonment. He also warns his wife: "Do not send anything as I do not receive it if sent." The letter bears a postscript by Confederate censor John M. Higgins, defending his nation's honor: "If any thing sent is not received by the prisoner, it will be because it is kept by your own people and not by ours. Any thing we receive will be delivered." August 6: "I am badly in want of underclothings. As it is 56 days I am using the same shirt, washing it now & then and remaining without shirts until mine is dry." "Officers of both armies are suffering very badly in their confinement with this weather and many will lose their life by fever & other sickness because the two commissioners cannot agree on their meetings. This is cruelly ridiculous!" December 15: "I kept my bed (I should say I have been rolled in my blanket on the floor) Saturday and all Sunday but to no avail; so this morning I got up scarcely being able to talk. I am so near the window that I suppose that is the reason of my getting such a bad cold." On Christmas: "This morning as a Christmas present the adjutant of the 5th Maryland was found with the smallpox in my own room. God forbids that it spreads in these overcrowded rooms, the destruction would be awful indeed."

with--one letter from di Cesnola to his wife shortly after his release, 29 March 1864--recuperating in a Union hospital, he mentions efforts to "clean myself of all the vermin I got in Libby" and a scarce biography in Italian: Luigi Roversi. Ricordi Canavesani: Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a Rivarolo Canavese e a Cesnola. New York, 1901.

Detailed letters such as these from Libby Prison are scarce; only officers were permitted to write more than six lines per letter. The author was one of the most noteworthy Italian-Americans to serve in the Civil War, later became a noted collector of Cypriot antiquities, and published an account of his time at Libby.