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                Jun. 20, 1861
Darling  Annie,
        Your letter of the 17th has just reached me
Keep me advised, I pray you about the children & do not
Venture Dear to carry ---- up stairs in your arms. I
--- not fail to get the prescription from Dr—
                  Godbless you
                        James
My dear Mother,
        I wrote & mailed you yesterday letter no. 1,
This is an arbitrary notation as you will see for I have
already sent you quite a large number & now finding this
“opportunity to”? drop you a line”? I accordingly take my
pen in my hand”? to avail myself of it.
        To day our forces retired from “Bethel”? the scene of
our late brilliant victory & the army now rests within
the defences of Yorktown, which judging from my examination
& what I hear is a very strong position.
    Just think of my officiating as guide to a
Regt. that marched out to meet our supposed enemy
& going out to battle in a very old buggy with a very
old horse.  Although impressed with the gravity of it
the occasion I couldn’t help feeling amused at
my novel squipaper.?  It turned out to be a false
alarm & so I trotted back.
    We are now in a very strong position, in fact those
In authority seem  very sanquine, & I trusting in the Justice
& Mercy of God have no fears for the ultimate result of
this unnatural contest, so you too my Mother must
try & keep up a firm trust in Him bearing in mind that
He keeps all his promises.
    For my own part I believe that I am a brave
man  I believe & trust Dear Mother. That I am
quite  “persuaded to become a Christian”?. So out of our








Distress a great good has been born – a hope my Mother
of a life beyond this life, which is at once the
fruition of your prayers & the reward of our troubles.
    Is there any thing my dear Mother which is not
ordered well & wisely?  Such is our faith.  We believe
that God ordains all things for the best, let us then
dear Wife & Mother illustrate the sincerity of our faith
by a firm Trust in God whose will, not ours be done
in this as in all other things.
    Do not mistake the tone of this letter for that of
sadness.  I am cheerful & strong & well & trust to see
you all before long my Darlings.
            God bless you Dear Mother.
                Your afft. Son
                    James
York, June 19th 1861

    Sweet Little Wifie, Dear little wifie,
                Papa James is well and in
good spirits & shall leave, God willing for Wmsburg
tomorrow – possibly to night.  Poor old York looks
similarly busy today & Baby Jane would see soldiers
enough if she were here bronze resolute looking fellows
who will give a good account of themselves
time comes.
        4 thousand prayer & kisses
                Your own Lord & Master

Williamsburg, June 20th 1861
    I was delighted to get on my arrival here, your
Letter of the 11th yours of the 14th reached me in York & I




feel ever so much better.  And, by way of repayment
Darling I am glad to tell you that your Mother is
In excellent health at Mr. Lo__?’s where the Yankees
have only been nice & there nothing was molested.
Your father’s losses have been small & he remaines at
the farm reasonably well satisfied I suppose.  I wrote
your Mother a letter from York which was sent
down by Mr. Burcher & told her about you all.
    By the way I got my shirt which Mr. I--?
Had to make & my person is adorned with it at this
present writing.
    Your letters are a great source of consolation to me
& I pray you to remember that I shall be prudent &
take great care of myself while I shall do my duty
as becomes a gentlemen & Christian.
    Odd things happen in these times.  I have just
assisted Dr. & Mrs. McCabe & Patsy to dismount from
a tall wagon & they are now in the Hotel, where
likewise Cousin I----?, Lessie & Mother, are safely
stowed away occupying your room.
    And strange you think?  I was not sorry to
see others in your places, because while there is
no danger here still the place is full of absurd
excitements & alarms, & I am charmed to think
of your calm retreat where one day is so much
like another as Mamma tells me,     more
pleasing news I have never seen.
    Then to this absence is a moral education




which will not be lost upon when upon us – which already
has brought forth good family with change.
which I have undergone.  Don’t you think so Darling
And, then to, Dear Annie I have high hopes of setting
down under our nice fig tree when this war is at an
End & seeing my children run up to possess the ---------?
of my Mother and their own.  Take this Babe Dearest
a b--? to keep your sweet little head above the drab
waters of despondency, & remember that every night
I shall pray for you & my Mother & my children.
    This letter Dear little wifie has been written like your
own with many & varied interruptions, & I had nearly
forgotten to ask, how you have appreciated your money &
every thing relating thereto.
    Tell me too, Darling about Baby Jane’s carriage &
what she said when it came & and how often she rides in
It, & whether she permits Miss Fannie to enjoy the
same pleasure.  Aw, Dearest there is a sweet, sweet picture
In my mind of your new home with its great, shadowy
trees & its air of peacefulness & calm     this comes up
before me very often & I thank God that I have been
able to leave you in so tranquil a retreat.
    Now I shall put this away until tomorrow when I
shall add a line or two more.  Don’t forget the greetings
especially about the little chicks & the money & tell me how
my Mother looks, & how you look & about mat. & every thing
that concerns you all.  Love to Rose.  Tell Julia to be good
& when the war is over I will try to buy her & wachie?. With all
Julias faults I am glad of the exchange.
            Godbless you Dearest
                           James





My Dear Mother        Williamsburg 21 June 1861.
        This is the longest day in all the year
& it would be very difficult for me to get through it
comfortably without writing you a line at least.  I
tell you of my excellent health & spirits.  In fact
my health is far better than it was for I have nearly
If not quite triumphed over my old enemy the
dyspepsia.  Last night for example I dispatched
at supper 3 rolls, 1 biscuit & 2  batter cakes after
which I slept most serenely drifting off on the stream
of slumber as I said my prayers.  My present
Quarters are excellent, but I assure you Dear Mother
that within warm weather the floor is preferable to
beds & plenty of air delightful, why there is my
frail looking friend Cary who slept in a shed swarming
positively fat.  You never saw him look so well
& I think I am growing perceptably better in appear-
ance, strength & general condition.  Certain is it
that I have not been sick, have not felt sick, &
have not stood in need of our families saline medicine
medicine since I  left you.  This I regard as the most
significant evidence of returning health, in either
l--?prep it better, of continued health, which I
could offer.  So do not be uneasy Mother.  I shall
take good care of myself & I hope to keep well all






The time.   I was much annoyed this morning to find that
Baby Jane’s carriage, which I thought she had long ago
was not sent from the Hotel to Mr. Chisman, but I
shall avail myself of the very first opportunity that
offers to forward it per Express.    I am very sorry for
this, but there is no use in fretting about it, so Baby
Jane must wait awhile longer being sure that Papa
will not forget to send her “buggy”?.  It shall not be
very long before it reaches her.
    Cousin Jeanette left this morning for her farm
which is perfectly safe, at least for the  present, and I
am ashamed to say got off long before I was awake.
    She made a thousand enquiries about you & as I
told you before looks astonishingly well.
    The town is thronged with Hampton people & in every
group I see familiar faces, & so strange an animal
is man!  They do not look sad, but bear up bravely---
learn from these poor people Mother who are so much
worse off than you a lesson & cultivate a cheerful
spirit.
    You have been so good that God surely will
reward you in this life my Mother, & if not here
certainly in the life to come.
    And now a word with my little wifie, but
before I have my talk with her, I must tell you
both to write me often, & to get some better paper
to write often.  It is a great happiness that



your better
        God bless you Dear Mother.
                JH

Well; Little Wifie, Dear Little Pup,
                I don’t generally
tell you news.  I have too much love in my
heart  to spare words for anything else.  But Mr.
Booker, just from Richmond tells me that we are
on the “eve of great events”?, that two battles will
be fought this week & that our Generals are
sanquine of success.  Johnstone is a man
of splendid ability & will command in one.
    Beauregard in the other  & both there ---?
soldiers are confident of success. It is terrible
to contemplate the idea of deathly battles, but
we have no assurance left & their blood must
be when there own heads. God bless their
souls & give us the victory.  From all I can learn
the resources of the South in men & money will be
ample for the occasion, & our people are full
with high hopes & determined courage.  In short time is
no such word as fail in all our vocabulary &
God is with us in this contest.   This is about all
the news I can communicate, & so I turn to ---
You, what I throughly suspect you know, that
I love you dearly, my dearly little Darling &





think of you morning noon & night.  Ah my
Darlings your faces come before me often, so
often & I love to shut my eyes and see you
as it were bodily before me.  Write me a long
letter & tell me any thing about yourself, my mother
& my children.
            A thousand prayers & hopes, from
                Your own James


                                       Dear Baby Jane     ??? Namm?? Mallery,
                                               Papa thinks
about you very, very often my children
and prays that you will be good little girls
& not fret your Mamma & remember that
God does not love bad children.
    Papa will soon send your carriage & when you
ride out in the cool evenings you must take
Grand Mother on one side & Mamma on the other
& talk about “Dear Papa”? who loves you my children
With a love that no words can possibly
express.
    Be good my Darlings, & God will bless you.
at night Baby Jane must kneel down at Mammas
knee and learn to pray as he did when he was a child, &
when “Little Sisser”? can learn she to must pray & by that
time Papa helper that he will be with his children to
direct their hearts to the Grace of all Good.
    A thousand kisses my little beauties from
            Your Father

Has Annie thought of the Soothing Syrup.