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25 September 1862
Powell Papers – 65 P875, Box III, Folder 2
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Direct Care of Mr Dickinson P. Edward Sept 25th / 62
P Edward Ct. House
Dear Cousin Sarah
Father enclosed me
a day or two since your kind letter to
him in which you express a wish to
hear from us girls, & I will not delay
writing any longer now that I know
that the way to Winchester is open; I
I should have done so before if I had been
sure of it. Thank you dear Cousin Sarah
for your kindness in taking care of our
things, & thank you too for the tender
sympathy you express for us in our
fresh sorrow. It is very sad, very hard,
is it not, to have to give up both our
Brothers, & to be obliged hereafter to
tread the weary path of life without the
support of their protecting care, the joy
of their warm tender love, but God has
willed it in His infinite wisdom & goodness
and we must bow in submission. Nobly
have our heroic boys done their duty,
they have been faithful even unto death
& I pray that the mantle of their he
roism may fall upon their sisters, &
that we may be enabled like them to
do our duty bravely & to bear with fortitude
the trials which it pleases God to lay
upon us. With such examples as please
of our parents before us we can hardly
we can hardly fail to do so, most wonderfully are
they both supported by God's strength.
And we have so much to comfort us
Cousin Sarah when we look back upon
their upright lives & gallant deaths,
I feel the blessed assurance that for
the sake of the blessed Savior in
whom they trusted, God has received
[2]
our dear Brothers into his heavenly king-
dom, where no pain, nor care, nor wea-
riness, nor sins, can ever enter & there
in God's good time we shall see them
again. How precious are the consolations
of our holy religion in times like these
how comforting the thought that these
sore afflictions come not by chance, but
are all ordered by our Father who is in
Heaven, Who is "too wise to err too living
to be unkind." Capt Braxton's testimony
to Charlie is "I believe he died a true
Christian" & I am so thankful that
dear Charlie's conduct had been so
decided & consistent from the time
that he joined the army as to enable his
Captain, himself a Christian soldier,
to say so, it is an inexpressible comfort
to us to feel that he was a faithful
soldier of Christ, true to his God as well
as to his country. And now I must
tell you something of ourselves since
we parted. You know we went
to Aunt Fanny's & spent several
weeks there very pleasantly, she &
Uncle Gordon are both so very kind
They did not want us to leave, but
we would not trespass too long on
their hospitality, & so Sister took a
place as teacher in Col Tucker's family in
Brunswick, & I came here to Mr.
Averby's [?] in P. Edward. Ma & Nina staid
a little longer, but the first of June
they too came to this county, & since
then Nina has been teaching at
Mr Redds, & Ma boarding there with
her, so that we have all been very
quietly & comfortably in the country,
not together, but so that we could
hold constant communication by
letter with each other & with Pa & Rebecca
[3]
& Ma Nina & I could see each other very
often. Pa has paid us one visit here
in the county, & indeed I think it was
much better that we should have left
Win[chester] when we did, for I don't believe Pa
could have stood the anxieties of the
summer if he had not been able to
hear from us, & know that we were well
& cheerful. He thinks I believe, that it
is better that we should not go back
while every thing is in such an unsettled
state & so Sister & Nina will keep their
present positions, & though I give up
my situation here next week, I shall
take another at once about four miles
from here, at Mr. Dickinson's near Hampton
Sidney. Mr. D is a lawyer, now a mem-
ber of the Va. Senate, & a very agreeable gentle-
man. His wife is a sweet lady, & I think
& I think I shall have a very pleasant home at
his house. The only objection to it is that
there is no Episcopal church within reach
so that I shall be obliged to attend the
Presbyterian entirely. Sister seems to have a
very pleasant home at Mr. Tuckers, & the
family at Mr Redds have been as kind
as possible to us as indeed they have been
here (Mr. Caverbys?) too. Mrs Redd is a cousin
of old Mrs. Susan Tidball's. & will you
tell Mrs. T. that her nieces Mrs Booker
& Mrs Scott (formerly Miss Susan Moreton?)
have made many enquiries after her
& express many wishes that she had come
down here. Mrs. Scott is a lovely lady,
She has no children & is very wealthy
& very kind, both she and her husband, to
all refugees. She lives near Charlotte
C. H. [Court House] Mrs. Booker has just lost her eldest
son Johnie he was killed in Md. after
serving faithfully in the army for more
than a year & passing through many bat-
tles unhurt. The country down here has
not felt the war as the upper country has
& except in the extremely high prices of
every thing & the vacant places in so many
houses which tell of sad bereavements
all is as it was before the war. I wish
[4]
very much I could see you all in Winchester
& as I cannot do that I should be so
glad to hear from you. Will you not
write to me & tell me all about any
friends. How are they all at Mr Bar-
tons. Do give my love to them all please
and how are Cousin Betty & the girls.
My love to them too, I should be very
glad if they would write to me. Kate
I know will not, but perhaps Sally
would & tell me what they have been doing
all the summer. I was very sorry to hear
of Powells death. Give my best love to
Mary Tidball & tell her I should be very
glad to hear from her, & will promise
to answer punctually if she will write
to me. I should be glad Cousin Sarah
if you would send my bonnet box to
me by Mr Bents [?] or Mr. Sherrard when they
come back to Farmville, if they are willing to
bring it and just send it to me at Mr. Dick-
insons by the stage to P. Edward C. H. Please
take what things are in it out, & will you
get from little Sue Tidball the key to Da-
vies Arithmetic which I lent him if she
has it still, & send it in the box. These
cannot be gotten in Richmond ,& we need
them in teaching more than Sue does I
reckon. I am very sorry to hear of Mrs. Tidballs
illness & hope she & Sue will both soon be well.
Please give a great deal of love for me to
D & Mrs McGuire, Mary, & Gettie & ask Gettie
if she ever received the letters I wrote
her from here, & whether she is not going
to answer them. I do want very much to
hear from all my friends. Have you heard
of Aunt E. Grays death. Pa says her weary
spirit winged its flight to Heaven about
ten days ago. And now my paper has given
out & I must stop. Paper is now $200 a quire
here. Is it so much with you? if not please
get me a quire & send it in my bonnet
box, just get the money from Mr. Sherrard
& I will return it to him. Give a great deal
of love to the Dr. & old Mrs. Conrad. Nina
joins me in love to Cousin Betty & yourself.
Very affectionately yours
Rebecca C. Powell
I wrote to you before from Aunt Fan's.
(ed: A quire of paper is 1/20 of a ream. This would equal 25 sheets but the stationers normally sold as 24 sheets. Perhaps this gave them samples or maybe a few spare sheets in case some were damaged. This seems way too high for 1862 pricing. Perhaps speculating has gone rampant in Farmville.)
(ed: Morton is a very common name in Prince Edward County along with Dickinson, Redd,
Dupuy, Watkins, & Booker. Perhaps Rebecca has just spelled Moreton incorrectly.)
