Hamilton’s Crossing
June 12th, 1863
My dear Wife
I am again disappointed in not getting a letter from you by today’s mail. I have not heard from you since the first note you wrote after getting to Tarboro. I hope you are not sick, but will have reached Shocco by the time this gets there. Mrs. Englehard writes the Major that she had taken a very nice room for you, with a fireplace. She had to engage it from the 8th which I am glad she did. I can only see one objection to it so far as you are concerned, and that is its proximity to Mrs. Rains and family. I hope you will find it pleasant enough to tempt you to stay all the summer, for then you will not be subject to your father’s ravings and unpleasant forebodings. Do not let the expense prevent you from staying, for now we have commenced the campaign my expenses will not be as much as they were during the winter, and I can well afford to board you two or three months in two years. Once and for all, if you find it more pleasant than Good Spring, stay the season out and call upon David for money when you want it. I shall either draw my pay or send David drafts on Richmond.
I fear I did Mrs. Englehard injustice in my last, for I have no doubt but that she is a very kind hearted lady, but her husband acts the fool when he writes her to have a good time with the young men. I want my wife to enjoy herself as much as anyone, but I know she will do it as a sensible young married woman ought to do.
We are occupying the same position we took last Saturday morning. The only change I can see is some heavy earthworks thrown up by the enemy on this bank of the river, which looks to me as if they did not intend to fight here, but hold us here to watch them, while Hooker operates above. I am getting tired of it and shall be glad to move up. We are in a very unsettled state, neither one thing nor the other. I have no doubt we have more troops in the vicinity of Fredericksburg than they, which we cannot afford. The Cavalry affair in Culpepper was a sad one and our loss was very serious. Stuart lost some of his best officers.
Poor Sol Williams and just married. I pity his desolate young widow. A strong argument against marrying while the war lasts. It would be much better if she were Miss Pagonne instead of Mrs. Williams. I suppose it is all right that Stuart should get all the blame, for when anything handsome is done he gets all the credit. A bad rule either way. He however retrieved the surprise by whipping them in the end.
Honey, by some means I kept your Bible, did you get mine? If you want my trunk write to Montgomery and direct him to send it to you. You will find that it holds about as much as the one you have and will be much more convenient. If we get North I shall get me one, and if we do not I shall not sent it. I would prefer your having it. It has no key, the lock being broken, but it locks by the hasp and to unlock it put your finger on top of the hasp, push down toward the floor and pull it out at the bottom. Write to Mr. A.D. Montgomery, Box 1453, Richmond.
I hope you made it all right with brother Robert about sending Anna to school. Did they not make a big fuss about your staying so short a time in Edgecombe?
I tease Mr. Williams a good deal about wanting to go home to spend his wedding anniversary with his wife, giving him to understand that no such excuse will do. I had a funny dream the other night. I thought I had been married to a young lady without ever seeing or hearing of her before. I was very bashful and had a hard time to keep jealousy from arising in the first of my two wives. It was a hard time I had in my experience of two wives, showing that one was better. She was nothing like as pretty as you. This was a very prominent part of the dream. It was a very strange dream for I had had no such thought beforehand. The next night I dreamed that Mr. Williams had got his leave and snapped his fingers in my face. I see occasionally late Northern papers and they are all full of the dissension in the North and complain – some of them – about the apathy in carrying out their Conscript Law.
Mrs. Englehard writes that she never saw so many children at Shocco. I feel convinced that Turner will be the brightest of his age there. I suppose you of course let them go barefooted during the warm weather. May you have good weather for yourself as much as possible under the circumstances. Present my compliments to Mrs. Englehard and thank her for me for her kindness about the room. God bless you my ever dearest wife. Kiss the boys.
Your loving husband.
Source: 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).
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