Web Smarts

http://www.pbs.org/amex/warletters

WHAT: PBS's website for its American Experience episode, "War Letters," assembles poignant wartime correspondence from American soldiers and nurses. The letters featured on last Sunday's program span conflicts from the American Revolution to the Gulf War.

BEST POINTS: In addition to excerpts, the site offers a timeline of battles, world maps with conflict sites, and resources for teachers hoping to incorporate war studies, letters, and America's international involvement into their curricula. There's also a sampling of Bill Mauldin's Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II cartoons, a quiz on US postal service during wartime, advice on preserving documents, and a forum for viewers to share their own stories of war mail.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The letters come from Andrew Carroll's Legacy Project - founded five years ago to collect war letters - and his resulting book, "War Letters."

The Legacy Project was featured in Homefront on Nov. 10, 1999. For more on letter writing, see today's "Connections" column on Page 16.