The following story was pieced together from letters, Civil War service records, internet postings, and genealogical records. The letters written by Bessie Hopkins Myers are a treasure that might never have seen the light of day had I not stumbled onto them using Fold3. Regrettably, the John Myers to whom those letters were written cannot have been the John Myers I was searching for. I had been trying to learn more about that John Myers, whose CDV was in an old photo album from the 19th century, an album I inherited years ago. However, since it is almost unheard of to find letters from home in a Civil War soldier's records, I followed the trail to discover who this other John Myers might have been. The odds are staggering that these letters would not only be found, but also tell a story of family drama that illustrates just how deeply the Civil War divided the nation. John Myers and George Hopkins, related through John's step-mother, who happened to be George's older sister, were living in the same house in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1860. John chose the Confederate cause, while George chose the Union, both of them serving in their respective navies.