From a Civil War Sex Scandal to the Depths of Pearl Harbor: New Documentary Brings Astonishing Wartime Letters to Life

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26-05-2025

Behind the Lines is a new documentary narrated by Annette Bening featuring selections from the Center for American War Letters brought to life by stars including Laura Dern, Common and Michael C. Hall.
The documentary was selected by Ken Burns to be screened at this year's Gettysburg Film Festival.
Behind the Lines will receive a wide release this summer.For a soldier, a letter holds a meaning that's hard to comprehend for anyone who hasn't worn the uniform. It's more than a message — it's a fragile thread connecting them not only to loved ones, but also to a fleeting sense of normalcy. Over the last 250 years, U.S. servicemen and women have sent an estimated one billion pieces of correspondence. Some were scrawled on delicate parchment, others typewritten with military precision and still more tapped out on computer screens. Andrew Carroll treasures them all.
As the founding director of the Center for American War Letters, he's spent decades traveling the world on a mission to preserve these messages from those who've witnessed warfare firsthand. It began when he obtained a note written by his cousin James Carroll Jordan, an American soldier who chronicled the horrors he witnessed at the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp after the fall of the Nazis.
'Keep it,' Jordan told him, 'I probably would have thrown it out.' Fearing that many other vets would feel similarly about these firsthand accounts, Carroll felt moved to act.
Since 1998, the collection has grown to over 100,000 letters, which is now housed at Chapman University. More than just a priceless historical archive, it's an ever-evolving, expanding monument to the men and women who served their country. The earliest entries date back to the Revolutionary War.
Some of the lines capture hilariously mundane moments of humanity. 'Mom, for the last time,' writes one exasperated serviceman, 'Please don't send any more underwear — just letters!' Others are steeped in gallows humor, like the soldier who reported, 'Today there's a rather determined effort from a German sniper to erase me from the company roster.' And some reflect on the incomprehensible scale of violence with haunting introspection:'It seems so strange to feel that a power is inexistent that can hurl masses of men against each other in deadly conflict, slaying each other by the thousands, mangling and deforming their fellow men. It's almost impossible. Who permits it?'
Sometimes the letters themselves tell stories that transcend words. One, pulled from the body of a Confederate soldier killed at the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, is splotched with mud and blood. Another, carried by a man fighting in the campaign at Anzio during World War II, bears a hole from the bullet that struck the soldier in his back. (Miraculously, he survived.)
Carroll's quest to preserve these letters has formed the basis of the New York Times bestselling book Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters – and one Man's Search to Find Them, which has been made into a documentary by filmmaker John B. Benitz, a theater professor at Chapman. Narrated by Annette Bening, the film features letter readings by a star-studded cast including Laura Dern, Common, Michael C. Hall, Rachel Bloom, Gary Cole and many more.
'I see these letters as kind of the first draft of not just national history but world history. They're kind of the world's great undiscovered literature,' Carroll says in the film. 'They show us not just what war looks like, but what it feels like.... I have come to this realization that you can never fully convey it. But at least if there's an understanding of what this person has been through, I think that can change society.'
Behind the Lines was selected by Ken Burns to be screened at the Gettysburg Film Festival this May in advance of a wider release later this summer. Below are just a few of the extraordinary stories included in the documentary, all culled from these historic letters.
The new owners of a home in Seattle were stunned to discover the firsthand account of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Ensign William Czarko was trapped deep in the bowels of the USS New Orleans, which was moored at Battleship Row on that fateful morning having its engines repaired.
'Dear sis, it's now 9:05 Sunday morning and we've been bombed now for over an hour.... Our anti-aircraft guns are yammering, and every so often a bomb strikes so close as to rock this ship. We're helpless down here in the forward engine,' he writes. 'A man just brought us our gas masks. I don't know why I'm writing this because if we're hit with a bomb they won't find enough of me, let alone this letter. I imagine it's to show myself I can be calm under fire. A few of the boys here are white-faced, their voices hushed and choked. They know this is no joke or mock battle but the real stuff.'
Czako survived the attack and went on to fight in the Pacific. He received an honorable discharge in 1945 before working at a shipyard in Norfolk for more than 30 years.
Among the most heartbreaking items in the archive are letters written the same day the author was killed. These include an audio tape made by 21-year-old Lance Corporal Aaron Austin for his fiance, Tiffany, just hours before his death in Fallujah on April 26, 2004 — five months before he was due to be discharged. Speaking into a small recorder, Austin reflected on the uncertainty of the mission ahead and shares a mix of fear, love and hope for a future he would never get to see.
'I don't know what's gonna happen. Last time was pretty crazy. At least I got to talk to you and tell you I love you. I want you to know how much I appreciate you standing by my side how you have out here. All the letters, all the pictures,' he said. 'It's crazy constantly getting shot at. But it's second nature reaction to it now, so… Don't worry about me, just keep your head up, I can't wait to get back, lay in bed with you and hold onto you. I can't wait to start the family with you. I'll be there, and I won't leave again. I have no doubt things will work out.... Just take care of yourself there. Take care of my mom. Sounds like you guys kind of take care of each other, that's awesome. Five months… five months.'
Those dreams ended hours later. According to his mother, De'on Austin-Miller, who spoke with the medic who held her son in his final moments, Aaron's last word was a whispered 'Please.' A letter she wrote to him, intended to arrive during his deployment, never made it in time. After his death, she added a postscript. 'I miss you Aaron, with all of me, all of the time. I was, am, and will always remain so very proud of you. I just never believed your time would come before mine. But son, you know we are forever.… And how good it will be to see you again. Mom.'
War always puts a strain on romantic relationships, but the separation imposed by military service creates more than just emotional distance. For couples torn apart by long deployments, the absence of physical intimacy could become unbearable — sometimes with dramatic consequences. In 1863, a Civil War soldier known as 'John N.' wrote a notably candid letter to President Abraham Lincoln requesting a discharge. The reason? Marital betrayal.
'Mr. Lincoln. When this war broke out, I went right in — I did,' he began. But during a furlough, he discovered his wife had been 'diddling other men. And I would like to have a discharge, for she diddles all the time.' To make matters worse, he added, 'she's got the clap, which I now have got, too.' Pleading with the president to let him return home permanently, he closed with a flourish: 'If you do what I say, I for you will pray.' The request was ultimately approved.
More than 50 years later, the anguish of enforced celibacy was still being felt. In January 1917, a German woman known as 'Mrs. S.' penned a desperate letter to her husband's commanding officer during World War I. 'Although my husband has only been in the field for four months,' she wrote, 'I would like to ask you to grant him a leave of absence. Mostly because of our physical relationship. I would like to have my husband at least once for the satisfaction of my natural desires. I just can't live like this anymore.' Following this, she promised, she could then endure the war 'until we are victorious.' Her request, unlike John N.'s, was denied.
On July 11, 1944, Private First Class George Saito, a Japanese-American soldier, wrote a letter to his father — who was, at the time, imprisoned in a U.S. internment camp. Like more than 100,000 other Japanese Americans, George's father had been forcibly relocated by the U.S. government under suspicion of divided loyalty following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
'Dear Dad,' George's letter began. 'I believe the War Department has notified you of our loss of Calvin. I have just learned of his passing. On the 6th of July, his unit was attacking a hill held by the enemy. Cal, being the radioman, somehow got a call through to the artillery to open fire on the enemy, and he personally directed and guided the firing, which routed them. His action — doing his job well at this one instance — saved many of his buddies. He happened to be one of the unlucky ones. All the fellows were telling me what a good soldier he was, and that his loss was keenly felt.'
Then, in a moment of quiet defiance and pride, George urged his father not to give in to bitterness: 'Dad, this is not the time to be preaching to you, but in spite of Cal's supreme sacrifice, don't let anyone tell you he was foolish or made a mistake to volunteer. From what I've seen in my travels on our mission, I'm more than convinced that we're doing the right thing. In spite of what has happened in the past, America is a damn good country. Cheer up, Dad, and take care of yourself.'
Three months later, George Saito was killed in action.
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