“We have the strictest orders at night to run the bayonet through any man that attempts to run the guard…” reads a line in one of the 13 letters written by Albert Fenner Waite in the opening days of the American Civil War. The recently discovered letters provide a picture of how the Union soldier from Warwick entered the war with visions of glory that quickly changed to the realization he may not live to return to the Ocean State. A woman in Wisconsin, who was given the letters, reached out to Peggy Malcolm, pictured at Waite’s grave in the Hoxsie section of Warwick who is president of the Rhode Island and Warwick Historical Cemeteries Commissions. Malcolm brought the letters to our attention. The first of a two part story on the letters and Waite’s story is featured in today’s RhodyLife section.