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Letter from Lloyd Powell [Henry, Ill] to Selina Powell [Winchester, Va]

1 February 1861

Powell Papers - 65 P875, Box II, Folder 5

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                                                                                    Henry Feby 1st 1861

                                                Several months have elapsed my dear Mother since I have enjoyed an hours conversation with you even upon paper, & so in spite of many doubts of my ability to entertain you agreeably this evening, I am determined to defer no longer the pleasure of atleast making the attempt to do so.  Nothing could have afforded me greater gratification dearest Mother, than your last most interesting letter, which reached me so opportunely on Christmas day.  Although for six years past these holidays have been spent far from home & have been accompanied by few circumstances which were calculated to revise the reminiscences of the Christmas days of my Early life, still there is no period of the year which brings you all so vividly before me, & which excites in my breast so strong a desire to join the group assembled around the family altar & fireside.  We all recognize it I suppose as a season when our thoughts leaving ourselves go out into the world seeking those whom we love, & who however distant, are still bound to us by links in the chain of affection, which neither time nor distance can sever or corrode.  And it is then I think that we most feel the need of some assurance of the undimished

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attachment of those loved one, whose sympathy & affection make up the happiness of our lives; so that to us wanderers from the paternal roof, letters from home at that time, are the greatest luxuries which the Christmas brings with it.  What a relief the weeks holiday must have been to you after the fatigues & anxieties of the four months previous!  I have no doubt you enjoyed the rest & quiet, quite as much as the school girls did the fun & frolicking.  I suppose you all derived some benefit from the vacation, & especially Sister Rebecca who I observe by Pa’s letter to Charley has just gotten back from Alexandria.  I am sorry to hear however that a fresh supply of health & strength is not the only thing that she has brought back with her, but that she has introduced into your conservative household the disunion sentiments & cockades which are flaunted in Alexandria.  I am afraid her associations there have not been not been very fortunates ones.  How am I to pay my proposed visit to Va next summer, if you all should separate from & go to war with us of the North!  I am very much afraid that the separation of the slave states from the free is inevitable, but I am by no means willing to believe that a civil war will necessarily ensue.  Within the last four weeks there has been a great change in public sentiment upon the subject of coercion of any sort through-

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out the whole North West, & very few even of those who were its strongest advocates a month ago, are now disposed to assume the responsibility of assisting in the inauguration of an intestine war, which would most assuredly extend to every town & hamlet north of the Ohio.  Here in Illinois, the feud between the Democrats  & Republicans is of the bitterest character, & any attempt to levy troops & impose taxes for the purpose of waging war upon the South, would at once bring about a hostile collision between the two parties.  So although a passport may be necessary to enable me cross the boundary between the Northern & Southern Confederacies next summer, I still hope to be hospitably received in Va as a citizen of a friendly although perhaps a foreign person.

These political troubles make business very dull in Henry as well as elsewhere, & the boys are not selling as many goods as the abundant harvests of the last year led them to anticipate.  Still, they are doing as well, & perhaps better than most of their neighbors, & are advancing steadily, though slowly, in spite of the storm.  They are all very well, & so are all at Uncle Richard’s except Miss Susan, who is just beginning to recover from quite a severe attack of illness.  Uncle R himself left here yesterday for Springfield & St Louis, & will be absent about a week.  He is still very much absorbed in his business affairs, but has transferred his energies this winter from land to grain spec-

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ulation, & now cherishes the most sanguine expectations as to the successful results of his large investments in corn & potatoes.  Our winter so far has been a very steady & pleasant one, with but little mud or rain, & with none of that extreme cold which is its usual characteristic.  The river closed about the 20th of November, & has not been open since then.  Today the ground is covered with sleet which makes the walking slippery, & indeed somewhat dangerous, & it is quite amusing to watch the unsuccessful attempts of the passers-by to maintain both equilibrium & dignity, two things which are utterly incompatible in the present condition of our payments.  Since the close of the shooting season, my leisure hours of which unfortunatily I have rather too many this winter, have been divided between Gibbon, Racine & the newspapers, together with an occasional novel by Buliver or Dickens!  Chess too I find an agreeable distraction sometimes.  Except my fair friend Miss Sophie Hyndsham, who alas! took her departure about a month ago, I never visit, & hardly exchange a dozen words with a young lady during as many weeks so you can imagine how little qualified I shall be to play the beau when I return to Va.  Tell Sister Bec I am truly grateful for her kind offer to select a Virginia wife for me, but I am entirely too young & too poor to think of indulging myself in such a luxury yet a while.  You need not however give yourself a moments anxiety lest I should allow myself to be betrayed into matrimony by the arts or fascinations of any young lady in this part of the world.  I am reserving myself especially for the benefit of some sweet, affectionate, Virginia girl, who may need a protector for herself, & a prudent & judicious manager for her fortune.

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By the way there seems to be some prospect of Miss Betty McGuire’s carrying out the threat made in her message to me last fall, that she would be off the carpet before I saw her again if I were not in Virginia soon.  A gentlemen so handsome & agreeable as Powell Conrad must indeed be hard to resist.  It is very painful for me to resign all hope in that quarter, but I suppose I must ­­­e’er grin and bear it.  Who is Uncle Neb "thinking“about”? now a-days?  He has dropped his correspondence with me entirely, & the only thing I have heard of him for six months, was a single sentence in one of Frank’s letters saying “Neb is lying on the sofa taking his after dinner’s nap.  He sleeps all day & sits up almost all night.”?  Uncle Fred & Frank write quite often.  They seem to be very restless, & very tired of the listless, inactive life which they lead in Alexa.  I hope you still persevere in your evenings walk dear Mother whenever the weather permits.  I’ve no doubt such exercise is of great service to you.  I find it decidedly so in my own case, & I look forward with great pleasure to sharing the enjoyment & benefit of it with you next summer.  I am sorry to hear Sister Hatty is so thin.  Tell her if she would clear off her indebtedness to me in the letter line, I think it would relieve her conscience & she would begin to fatten up atonce.  Goodbye      My darling Mother, I am perfectly shocked at the length of this letter.  I don’t think I ever wrote so long a one before in all my life.  Hoping you may get through with it some time or other, & with much love to yourself, Pa, & the girls I am

                                                your very affectionate son

                                                                                                Lloyd Powell