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Letter from Catharine Powell [Belvue, Va] to Charles L. Powell, Sr [Winchester, Va]

20 January 1861

Powell Papers - 65 P875, Box II, Folder 5

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                                                                                    Belvue Jan 20th 1861

            My very dear Son

                                                            I hope you have not concluded that it was from indifference that I have so long delayed responding to your affectionate letter.  My hand has not yet recover’d precision of motion suficiently to enable me to write without fatigue, and there was so much in your letter that I wish’d to reply to, that I defer’d the task till my hand got strong enough to write more legibly.  We have had such dull, damp, foggy atmosphere for several weeks that I have found it very unfavorable to the recovery of the use of my limbs, and too much in unison with the clouds & darkness that over shadow our political prospects, to admit, even a ray of mental light to invite a letter, True as you say I have the prospect of encountering 3 wars in my lifetime.  The first, I was too young to be conscious of, the 2nd

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I was beyond its reach, & scarcely heard the echo of its thunder, the 3rd I fear not for myself but for my children, & my country.  I do fear dark days are coming, my years admonish me that. That I  have a retreat provided against that day secure from wars & rumors of wars, where the wicked cease from troubling, & the weary are at rest.

I may at least say of the [___], With [_____], I [_____] call by its Cradle & may follow its Hearse.

But I am not an uninterested spectator of its progress to dissolution, I was just 8 years of age when I witnessed the bonfires & illuminations and the noisy rejoicings in Alexandria to welcome your grandfather on his return from the Convention with the good news that Virginia which [____] (under the influence of some of our ablest Statesmen held back) had joined the Confederation.

I remember feeling very proud of the demonstrations that I conceived were made in honour of my Father.  There appears now very little chance of a reunion, The fanatics of the North, make use of every device

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to counteract the intelligent conservative men.  I saw the other day, in a N Y paper, a story of a young & beautiful school teacher in Alabama being siezed by a mob, stripped, tar’d, & feathered, accompanied by an explanatory plate the base fabrication authenticated by several names. 

When I reflect on the slight difference of religious opinions that caused the thirty years war in Northern Europe; I cannot avoid apprehending the same effects from similar causes, even more aggravated prejudices, & antagonistic principles.

Cuthbert when I last heard from him was in Poolesville, Maryland, John like every body else in Alexandria is doing nothing, my hand is so tired I must conclude my letter.  Remember me affectionately to Liliana my granddaughter, neices & friends in Winchester.  Ann joins in the same may God prosper & bless you prays your ever

                                                                        Affectionate mother

                                                                                    Catharine Powell