Sale, who had attended Norfolk Academy and was the son of a prominent architect, was 19 when the war broke out. He abandoned his studies in Williamsburg and went home to Norfolk to enlist.

Over the course of the war, he wrote home often. His letters are stored at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

All recordings in this series, performed by actors, are from letters and journals by Sale and others as written, without correcting for grammar or modern style.

Hodges was born free on Feb. 12, 1815, in southern Princess Anne County. His family owned land and was well-known in the community. He later became an abolitionist, sparked by a violent attack against his family in 1829.

His brother William was arrested after being accused of forging "free papers" and giving them to slaves. He and a few other blacks at the Portsmouth jail later escaped and fled north. Groups of armed white men searched for William at the homes of free blacks, including the Hodges home, as described below.

Elizabeth Curtis Wallace was the lady of the Glencoe plantation in Norfolk County, and kept a diary during the war years.

Her husband, George T. Wallace, owned a lumber company near the Dismal Swamp; the area known as Wallaceton was named after the family.

Two sons, William C. Wallace and John G. Wallace, would eventually join the Confederate Army.

Lucy and Sarah Chase were sisters from Philadelphia who, in 1862, requested and received permission to serve as teachers for the New England Educational Commission.

They were sent to Craney Island to provide instruction to the “contrabands,” or as Lucy referred to the former slaves, “refugees.”

Below are readings from letters Lucy Chase wrote during her service.

Following Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 men, Hill joined Co. B, 27th N.Y. Vol. Infantry Regiment in May 1861. He was 17.

In July, his regiment fought in the first major land battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, but Hill literally slept through most of it.

Soon after, he was sent to the regimental surgeon and was told he had one “deficient” lung and was discharged on Aug. 13, 1861.

This Norfolk reverend took an oath of Union allegiance but did not take it to heart, according to details revealed in an interrogation between the Rev. Armstrong and Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler.

Armstrong was committed to the Guard House and later consigned to Fort Hatteras in solitary confinement.