The Yankee gunboats visited the fisheries on the Chowan recently and destroyed the seines and other fishing materials #cw150

The Raleigh Standard makes the following extract from a letter from Hertford County:

“The Yankee gunboats visited the fisheries on the Chowan recently and destroyed the seines and other fishing materials. They say their object is to perish us into submission, but will allow seines to be fished if the owners will take the oath of allegiance. This offer was treated with contempt by the fishermen of this County.”

Source: Fayetteville Observer, April 16, 1863 as found on www.ncecho.org

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There is also a Colored Sabbath school. I will go to and learn these poor little negroes all I can #cw150

Be of good cheer I overcame the world saith one who is mighty

 

Camp near NewbernN.C.

103rd Reg’t, Co., A. U.S.A.,

Friday, April 3^rd 1863

 

Dear Father And Mother,

With pleasure I write to let you know that I still am on the land of the living, And still occupy our barrack at Old Newbern.  We have been laying almost inactive since returning from our Hyde Co. Expedition.  If I were to tell you the reason we lay here inactive was on account of the drifting sand you would think it strange, for I suppose the mud covers the surface of the ground around my old native home, this time in the year.  But here the soil is a fine sand and if it rains the water soaks through and the wind from the rivers and plains soon dries off and begins to drift like our snow used to do in old Penn^a

When writing my last letter I neglected or rather forgot to till you of the Rebels comeing here to Newbern while we were on our march to Hyde Co.  On the morning of the 14^th of March our boys tell  us the Rebel Gen. Petigrew came here or near with a force and demanded a surrender.  Gen Foster “would’ent” The rebels got their Canon in range and threw shot Shell and Grape at the 92^nd N.Y.V. entrenchments. (92^nd is posted on the other side of the river from us, their fort, or entrenchments are between two swamps Consequently there is only one road for that enemy to come in) the 92^nd was the only Reg’t that was on that side of the river they lay close behind their breast works and the showers of Iron hail did not much damage, the Gunboats getting [rang] the enimy thought It prudent to retire.  I suppose they had an Idea that they could come in and take possesion after our forces having possesion for one year.  that morning one year ago, Gen Burnside took possesion of this City.

We have had the most pleasent time soldiering since coming here in the first place we have had good barracks, and what makes it far pleasenter for me, I can go to Newbern to preaching.  on last sabbath I was to a sabbath school.  It looked quite natural.  I almost fancied myself seated in old Kuhns-School House.  here were Southern Children in place of our little Pennsylvanians.  There is also a Colored Sabbath school.  The superintendent of the white sabbath (which was a major of one of our Regts here) remarked at the close of the school that there were teachers wanted for this negro sabbath school.  If I live and keep my health and were permitted to stay here, I will go to this sabbath school and learn these poor little negroes all I can, and think it an honerable position in the army of my Lord and Savior.  I would attend this black school regular, but the time of school comes at the time of an inspection (9 Oclock)

As I am writing I hear the boom of the Canon at little Washington about 40 miles from here by land. the Rebels are trying to take it. they will hardly succeed for our Gunboats from here went to lend a helping hand.

A soldier almost feels like yielding to discouragements betimes, But when I begin to fell discouraged, take the good old book, and I see I am carried on flowy beds of ease to what some poor Christians were before me.  when I read and see what Gods people have come through, I fell to say.

“Let Cares like a wild deluge come.

“And storms of sorrow fall.

“So I but safely reach my home

“My God, my heaven, my all.”

If I never should meet you on this side of the grave, weep not for me I’ll meet You in Heaven.

Your son Jno. T.E. [V.D.?] Rupert

 

Written in folds:

Give my Respect to all my brothers, and sisters and tell them to be good little folks.

Give my Respect to James Kline and family.

 

Source: Union soldier, Johnathan Rupert, letter  to his parents.  Tryon Palace Collections, New Bern, NC. Accession # 2008.006.002.

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The enemy’s iron clads are of much lighter draft that we supposed… #civilwar150

Latest War News

From Eastern North Carolina – Wilmington, Jan’y 24 – By information almost direct from Beaufort, we learn that the enemy’s iron clads are said to be of much lighter draft than we had supposed, being only nine feet two inches. They have one or two pilots who know this river perfectly.
The boats of the Monitor class are merely floating batteries, without speed or sea-going qualities. They had to be towed around from Fortress Monroe, and dare not venture out from Beaufort while there is any swell outside.

The Yankees at Beaufort say they are coming here the first favorable weather.

An Abolition force consisting of about a thousand cavalry, with a battery of light artillery, made a reconnaissance in force this week as far as Jacksonville, in onslow county, but almost immediately returned within the Abolition lines at Newbern.

Source: Fayetteville Observer January 26, 1863 as found on www.digitalnc.org

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the vile wretches stole all Mrs Bell’s bed clothing, cut open her feather beds & threw the feathers from the chamber windows #cw150

November 17, 1862 [part 2]

The last mail brot news of McClellan’s having been relieved of his command & Burnside being assigned to his duty, an astonishing step, & one so directly in the face of the Democratic element at the North with whom McClellan is a favourite that it can be accounted for in two diametrically opposite ways—the first that is a ruse to deceive us & that he will make his next appearance as commanding Gen in Halleck’s place or at the head of a column advancing upon Richmond by the way of Suffolk (this would propitiate the army); the other is that Lincoln & his Cabinet are so disgusted with the recent elections & the majority against them that knowing they have the reins for a year longer, they are resolved to keep no terms with the Democrats but throw their favourite overboard without scruple, make him in fact the scape goat for their past blunders.  Burnside is the valiant gentleman who came here to N C to subdue us last winter & who, during the storm off Cape Hatteras, stood like a sea god—distinguished by his yellow belt.  He issued a proclamation to assure us he was “a Christian,” but his after acts, like those of many who make the like profession, showed that he was either a hypocrite or a backslider.  Witness the ravages & thefts of his command through the whole Eastern part of our State—“the most Christian Gen Burnside,” we salute you! & hope that our Gen Lee will give you a reception worthy your merits and distinguished Christianity.  Lee’s position keeps us uneasy, but such confidence is felt in his generalship that we all believe that he will extricate himself with safety & skill and inflict a blow on the enemy in doing so.  An advance by Gun boats is threatened up the James River, another attack it is thought on Drury’s Bluff.  The S C reserves have been ordered to Charleston & ordered to report to Beauregard who expects and attack soon.  In the West the news is discouraging.  Bragg seems to have mismanaged shamefully & Buel to have got the better of him in all points but the battle of Perryville which was bloody & barren.  Butler continues to distinguish himself by his brutality, has made all the inhabitants of N O take the oath or confiscated their property.  So many assertions per & contra have been made about the force of the enemy that recently threatened our country that I paste a slip containing an account of their force taken from a Northern paper.  It will be seen that there was cause for our aprehensions.  To this we had a force of 5 000, & yet all agree such was their panic & ignorance of the country that Gen Martin had he had pickets out & made a proper division of his forces could have captured them all.  But it is easy to  & be a carpet general.  It is one thing to manovre crumbs of bread & slips of paper, say this is Lamb’s, that Faison’s, & there Burgwin’s regts, & to take the Regts themselves & order them into position.  I prefix a list of Richmond prices marked G to show how the money of our soldiers goes in that Maelstroom of extortion.  I also prefix Mr E’s address to the counties marked F and an article on Diptheria marked E.  I put it here because my receipt book where I always preserve such things is out of my reach on account of the Abolitionists & I wish it for reference, that disease being so prevalent & fatal.

It is a fact that the vile wretches stole all Mrs Bell’s bed clothing, cut open her feather beds & threw the feathers from the chamber windows & after they left one scoundrel ran back & took the covering from her cradle in which her infant was lying!  The details of their enormities would fill a volume.  They killed the stock, Hogs, sheep, milch cows, steers, etc., for mere wantonness, leaving them where they shot them.

Well I must to work.  My house is in order & my handmaidens wait upon me & O! annoyance, here comes Mingo with a message from Patrick to the effect that I must got to fathers tonight.  The crafty creature!  He advised for fear that I should coad him.  He knew he would meet Mingo on his way to his work here.  Well obedience is a wife’s first duty, so I must go, tho it cuts short my day & leaves me no time to wind the bobbin of yarn that I spun yesterday.  I send a couple of lbs of Black Pepper each as a present to Margaret, Sister F, and Ellen Mordecai, there being none to be had in the country.  Fortunately we have “a Pocket” of it—a commentary on the times.  Surely this War is meant to check the profusion in which we have lived & to teach the rising generation economy & the employment of their resources.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

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They told me that the Yankees had all left for Plymouth after attempting to burn Williamston #civilwar150

November 11, 1862

Went yesterday to Hascosea to see how things get on there and attend to some matters that I had not time for when we left on Wednesday.  Snow still lies on the ground in sheltered & Northern exposures & the severe frost has taken the beauty from the autumn leaves—another enjoyment we have lost this time by Northern weather.  Whilst there three Companies of Cavalry passed going up towards Halifax—a favourable sign I hope of the departure of the enemy.  Two men from one of them came in & politely requested me to give them some cold bread & meat.  Having nothing but a cold Ham in the house, having just finished my lunch of Ham, bread, & tea, I invited them in whilst Dolly should bake some bread & fry some potatoes—all I had to offer.  They proved to be members of Dr Shaw’s Company, which was raised for Edmondston’s Battalion, so they seemed to have a claim on me.  Mr E started down to muster them in last May but was detained by the collision of the Cars at Halifax.  They were full of polite regrets at his & their disappointment at sacks with Ham & bread and wishing them good speed they left me with many thanks—their names Lieut Peterson and Mr Bunting.  Had they known that it was Mr E’s house when they came in, the Capt would also have stopped.  He was at our house on the plantation last spring.  They told me that the Yankees had all left for Plymouth after attempting to burn Williamston, in which, however, they only partially succeeded.  They left in a great fright thinking that our men were upon them, leaving some of their baggage & camp equipage.  Mr Bunting showed me some tin plates on which they had been eating with the cold beef gravy still upon them!  They left some wagons & a Jersey wagon & a lot of candles.  Thirty of the company were left behind as pickets to guard us for the future & Lieut Peterson reported a strong force of Infantry below.

Came home & stopped at Looking Glass for some Black Pepper for Mama.  Carried her three P’s, not so famous as those needed in education.  “Praise, Punishment, & Physic” but almost as much used, viz., Pears, Pickles, & Pepper!  At night came Mr E from Tarboro.  He reports shameful mismanagement of our troops by the General in command.  Had he had proper information which he could have got & advanced by one road, sending one Regt by another, it is the impression of everyone that we could have captured the whole force which was variously reported as from five to ten thousand strong & in a panic of fear all the time, dreading the woods for fear of ambush & the swamp for fear of guerillas.  On Friday they were, some furiously and others helplessly, drunk, having taken Mr [---] Apple Brandy, drank as much as they liked & staved in the heads of twenty barrels—a heavy loss to him poor man for it now brings twenty dollars a gal!  Had our men been near every man of the party would have been taken!  Gen Martin reports that they have gone back to Plymouth & he has issued an order for one fifth of the road hands to be in readiness when called for to work on the fortifications at Rainbow Bend, promising a sufficient force to guard them whilst at work.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

 

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Union occupation: “the Zouaves swarmed in like Devils, yelling, whooping, & screaming.” #civilwar150

November 9, 1862 [part 2]

Our first destination was the plantation, there to attend to the welfare of our negroes, & next to father’s to give what aid & assistance lay in our power.  I packed up our clothing, books—that is our most valuable ones–& made such disposition of them as I deemed proper, getting some things ready to send to Raleigh & Hillsboro, others to remain with us.  I was mortified to find that anxiety or sleeplessness had made me really sick, so that if was with difficulty I could eat.  This I forced myself to do & with many reproaches to my own weakness went on with my packing.  About eleven Mr E went to our neighbor’s Mr Hill’s & found that he had already sent off his family & servants & was preparing to leave for his plantation himself!  I packed up Rachel’s things & a bundle for James E, having a good opportunity of sending it on to him; & about two we left Hascosea perhaps forever—as being on the high road between Hill’s Ferry & Weldon (their probable destination), there is little doubt that should they penetrate so far it will fall a victim to their love of plunder & destructions.

I do not tell all I did, for time would fail me, & besides I can never forget it, so will not need this to remind me.  Suffice it to say that at Looking Glass we made the best dispositions we could, telling the negroes how to comport themselves & what to do in case of the enemy’s occupation, promising not to leave them, & came here to father, who was most happy to see us.

This was on Wednesday the 5^th.  Our dispatches, of which we received two every day, have varied from hopeful to despondant ever since.  It is needless to record them all.  On Thursday Mr E went to Clarksville to attempt to organize a Co for local defence but failed, there being but few there willing to join him.  Capt Clements read him a ltter from his siter, Mrs Kinchin Taylor, telling him of the outrages they committed at her house.  She said the Zouaves swarmed in like Devils, yelling, whooping, & screaming.  Her negro servant, Ness, drew a knife & took his station by her telling them that he would kill the first man who laid a finger upon her.  Noble conduct, as all who know how timid the race is generally will admit.  They sacked the house, threw everything out of it, breaking every thing that could break & chopping the furniture to pieces!  They built a fire out of doors, cut up the corn crop & threw it on it, killed all the fattening Hogs, sheep, cattle, & cows & threw them also into it.  They took her carriage & every horse on the premises, telling her that they would have burned the house but that she was in it.  She went herself on foot to their headquarters, saw General Foster, the officer in command, & requested that her horses might be returned to her.  He looked & spoke so cross that she feared him, but his Aid, to his praise be it spoken, Capt George Anderson of Boston interceded & obtained one horse for her.  Her carriage was also returned with the harness cut into bits.  He (Capt A), when he saw the desolation & destruction wrought in her house, actually wept!  His tears did him credit.  I did not think a Yankee capable of it!  Let him now only resign the service of such a Government & he may yet do well.

At Mr John Williams they burned his  Gin, Screw, & all his cotton and leather.  Mr E had this from Mrs Williams herself.  What fiends!  & what useless barbarity, a barbarity which God will punish!  We have been thus anxious ever since, one account encouraging, the next discouraging us, accordingly as they reported favourably or otherwise of their advance.

On Friday the 7^th we opened our eyes upon a heavy fall of snow!—the earliest ever known in this climate.  I could not enjoy the unusual & brilliant spectacle of the autumn leaves, crimson, yellow, & orange covered with a fleecy Veil.  I was too uneasy & fearful lest the snow should raise the River & allow the Gunboats which we heard were aground on Williams bar to get off.  On Friday came brother, less despondant at first, it appeared, than usual, but we soon found his calmness partook of the nature of despair.  Mr E & himself arranged to go & offer their services to the Comdg-Gen & the Gov as Volunteer Aids & today they left for the head quarters of our Army, now said to number thirteen Regts, but we do not credit it.  We suppose an advance is to be made simultaneously with this from Suffolk & look anxiously for news, but as yet none seems to be threatened.  Brother has sent to Richmond for Annie, fearing our R R communication may be cut off.  I am so sleepy that I will go to bed now & leave the outside news, i.e., news from all but this corner of the Confederacy until tomorrow.  Mr E keeps me in better order when he is at home.  Were he here I should have been asleep long ago.  I am not half done yet.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

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It is a week since I opened this book & Ah! what a week of anxiety & care!

November 9, 1862

Sunday at Conneconara.  It is a week since I opened this book & Ah! what a week of anxiety & care!  Tonight a week ago I made my last entry, Mr Edmondston being absent in Tarboro.  He is absent again tonight probably in the same place but on how different an errand!  He came home on Monday to dinner & found me in gay spirits, looking for him, knitting a stocking for James & superintending the digging of my Dahlia roots.  He seemed anxious & worried & so soon as he got warm & comfortably at home told me that he enemy was reported as advancing in force, having marched across the country from Washington, compelling Burgwin’s, Ratcliff’s, & Lamb’s Regts to fall back & that Faison’s was on its way to join them having encamped at Tarboro the night before.  They had had a skirmish in which some of our men were killed & more wounded.  This came like a thunderclap upon me & we hastily concluded to go down to father’s that night, not only to see him, but to stop the sending of our negroes to work at Rainbow Bend Hamilton, as they had been ordered to do in the morning.  We went & carried our heavy news with us.  Next morning came Mr Hill & brought more encouraging news to the effect that Gov Vance had gone to Tarboro to take command & that more troops were en route & that we had repulsed the advance.  We returned home, dining at Looking Glass as we passed & making our arrangements to move in the morning from Hascosea.  Went out in the afternoon and I attended to the housing of my Dahlias, dividing them so as to send a nice portion to Mrs. Rayner, Ellen Mordecai, Mrs Mordecai, Thos Hogg’s children, & Mrs James Smith.

No additional news at night, so we went to bed quite reassured.  Scarcely were we asleep when we were aroused by a note from Mr Hill telling us that the Yankees had taken Hamilton—were advancing in force, 12000 strong with 1200 Cavalry, that our troops had fallen back toward Tarboro, & that they had killed Bennet Baker & some others!  This struck horror into my heart, for but a few days before I had seen Bennet Baker, young, vigorous, & full of life & the thought of his bleeding corpse, which had been carried to his father’s house, banished sleep from my eyes for the rest of the night.  About three we heard the tread of a horse & this time it proved to be John Currie with a note from Mr Speed telling us that “times is serious,” “the Yankees advancing,” “Cavalry in pursuit of our men.”  We were soon dressed & down stairs—found Mr C in a state of excitement and alarm scarcely to be described.  He told us that our neighbors were all moving, or making preparations to move, that a heavy land force occupied the roads whilst five Gun boats were in the River, & much more to the same effect.  My heart sickened within me.  I felt weak & faint but, thank God, He gave me strength to subdue all manifestations of fear & in a short time by His support I rallied & was enabled to go calmly to my preparations for leaving home.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

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At least ten thousand negroes have been stolen or enticed off from their owners since the fall of Roanoke Island. #cw150

October 11, 1862 [cont’d]

Saw but few of my Raleigh friends as our stay was so short.  What few I did see were full of forebodings & warnings, urging us to remove all that we valued from this house, in short dear old home to break you up for fear of the enemy making an ascent of the river & harrying our whole country side.  The negroes they were urgent for us to remove, but where to carry them?—that is the question.  How to support them, how to house them, all questions easier put than answered.  Saw Mr Cannon from Perquimans.  He gives a deplorable account of the state of affairs in the Eastern Counties.  At least ten thousand negroes have been stolen or enticed off from their owners since the fall of Roanoke Island.  All our acquaintances have lost their men, many of them their negro women also.  A gentleman, a friend of Mr Cannon, one whom he considers reliable, told him that in a ride of Sunbury to Suffolk, a distance of twenty eight miles, he counted on the side of the road the corpses of fourteen negro children left unburied for the fowls of the air to prey on.  They had died from want of sickness, it may be deserted by their Mammies, & just left us they fell.  Mr Bynum, of Winton, the same who kept that comfortable house where we were so kindly treated on our journey from Perquimans with sister Betsy after Mr Jones death, lost 97 negroes in one night!  During the next week he found the bodies of five or six (Mr C did not remember which) of his little negroes in the swamp opposite his plantation (which lies on the Chowan) who had evidently died of starvation, their fingers being in their mouths and they in an evident state of emancipation & want, deserted probably by their parents in their flight.  We must hope that they thought they would be retaken & cared for by their owner, otherwise their conduct is worse than that of “the brutes that perish.”

The Yankees had two Camps in Gates county & received all that came to them & sent them to Suffolk where they are assorted, the able bodied sent to the army & the women & old ones with the children left literally to starve after they have stolen every thing that could support life.  It is terrible.  Ah! philanthropy!  What a cheat!  What a delusion you have been to the infatuated Abolitionists!  Do they were you as a cheat, a mask, or are they mistaken themselves?  I fear the former.  Ah Madam Stowe, I wish you could look on your own work; heartless and unprincipled as you are, it would make you shudder!

Mr Thomas Newby, now an old man, was left in one night without a servant to feed his horse, out of a large plantation!  How soon may this fate be ours!  We hurried home to enable Mr E to attend a meeting of the neighborhood to represent to the Commanding Gen the importance of defending Roanoke River at Hamilton or Rainbow Bluffs instead of Bridgers ferry, as is at present proposed.  I hope they may be successful.

Whilst we were in Raleigh Gov Vance arrived from Richmond & he also brought the news that Patrick was made Colonel, Captain Haxal Lieut Col, and Mr Tucker Major of the newly organized Regt of Cavalry, but he found no announcement of it from the Department.  So we know not what to think.  Just after henry Miller told us of it we read of the passage of the Exemption Bill by which Mr E is exempt from the Conscript as we own far more than mendation & cross purposes except to save him from the Conscript, so I care but little for the honour.  If the country need him I wish him to go; otherwise I ardently desire him at home.

Journal, I brought you a present from Raleigh—a new blank book where in to extend yourself—so we will presently adjourn to it & I will give you the war news, which, alas, is not cheering!

I told you, my dear Journal, that I had a new book for you, not new exactly as it is an old account book of Mr Miller’s given me by Sister Frances; but tho not gifted with personal pulchritude, you, Journal, must add value to it by the sincerity & delicacy of your record.  Write only words of truth & they will be so rare that they will have a value of their own!

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

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just read Butlers infamous proclamation about the ladies of New Orleans, and cannot find words to express my horror and indignation #cw150

May 22, 1862

I have just read Butlers infamous proclamation about the ladies of New Orleans, and cannot find words to express my horror and indignation.  Was such a cold blooded barbarity ever before conceived?  Can he have a gentleman under his command?  If so we shall soon see, for no man with one spark of honour or humanity will serve under such a chief!  If the U S Government does not at once disavow this brutal order, it will be stamped with infamy deeper even than Austria’s!  And yet is it worse than the order of Gen Hunter emancipating the slaves of Florida, Georgia, and S Carolina, which appears in the same paper?  Coarser and more brutal in words, more directly insulting, but in spirit is it less infamous?  Are its intended consequences (which God in his mercy avert) less horrible?  Good God!  Have we come to this?  To insult, to threatened disgrace and infamy?  No!  Even tho’ our foes should be those of our own households, we have a spirit unconquerable, invincible!  We have severed all bonds.  We no longer will hold any intercourse with you, ye puritanical, deceitful race, ye descendants of the Pilgrims, of the hypocrites who came over in the Mayflower.  Plume yourselves on your piety, your civilization.  Wrap yourselves in your own fancied superiority.  We are none of you, desire naught from you.  We detest you!

 

*Butler’s proclamation:

“As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subjected to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.”

May 23, 1862

http://www.civilwarhome.com/butlerwomanorder.htm

 

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

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Everyone weakens the cause who allows himself to doubt of our success. #civilwar150

Camp nearRichmond,Va., May 21st, 1862

My dear Wife

I know you have thought fifty times, why cannot I go to see him, he is at Richmond, and my dear such thoughts have crossed my brain, but had to be given up in their infancy, for it would be imprudent for a lady—especially with children—to come on here now.  Every nook and corner is filled with soldiers dirty, etc. etc., and then again there is not telling when the city may have to suffer what New Orleans was only threatened.

By the way, have you seen Gen. [B.F.]Butler’s order or proclamation in which he says if another lady dares treat a Yankee officer discourteously they shall be treated as women of the town—that is, women of bad repute.  Did you ever hear of such brutality, trying to frighten our poor women into showing respect to his miserable drunken rabble.  Can such people succeed.  I pray not.  May the Lord have mercy upon us and make our hearts brave and theirs more cowardly than they are.  What can we expect when their chief officers—and one who pretended to be favorable to the south before the war broke out, act as Butler proposes if we should be subjugated.

McClellan is making his way slowly towards us but unless he travels faster than he usually does, it will be some days yet before he gets here.  He has 12 miles off yesterday, with a little stream between him and us.  He will make every effort in his power to beat us, but he will have a hard time of it.

I received a very desponding letter from David two days ago.  Each individual seems to think that when their little village is within reach of the enemy that the country is gone.  I rather gave him a piece of my mind yesterday.  I do not think one should allow anyone to know if he thinks so that he fears for the ultimate result.  Everyone weakens the cause who allows himself to doubt of our success.

… Mr. Stuart went into the Convention yesterday with the intention of having the Bishop come to camp and preach for us today.  I hope he will come.  We have the most beautiful place around my tent I ever saw, for him.  I have my tent in a beautiful little nook of the hills.  Beech and honeysuckles all over and around a nice little stream we have dammed up to make us a bathing place….  It is perfectly charming I just wish you could see it.  Mr. Stuart is a regular trump.  I like him so much.  He seems to be a most excellent Christian and an agreeable and industrious companion.  He makes himself very useful instead of troublesome as I feared.  I feel that association with him will be of great benefit to me.

As drill is about to come off I must close but will write again tomorrow or next day.  My love to all.  God bless you and the children.

Your devoted Husband

 

Sources: William Hassler, ed., One of Lee’s Best Men: The Civil War Letters of General William Dorsey Pender (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). William Dorsey Pender papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/p/Pender,William_Dorsey.html

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