My Dear Creek

I have arrived here all safe and
am quite well. the weather here is very cold and wet
here yet, but the snow has all disapeared and left
the ground in a dreadful fix every place is muddy
that it makes is very disagreeable, then is hardly such a ting
as a waggon passing between here and Manassas
the roads are in such a bad state.

I received your letter by Sam Lewis and am happy
to hear that you have got well again. I hope you
will get clear of those troublesome headaches to which
you are so subject.

I know you will want to know something about
the volunteering. their had not been much done
towards it as yet, but we have recieved the orders
to fix up the papers, and get at it as soon as
possible. Most of the Regiment (from what I can
hear) are very luke warm on the subject. I have
never asked my company what they intend doing
as yet; but some of them have told me that if
I will stay on they will go with me. I do not intend
to press the matter on them nor ever advise any
of them against their inclinations or the
advice of their friends at home if any of my

[page 2]
company goes into it they will do it without any
persuasion from me.

I found William quite well on my arival[sic] and
the Boys were all very glad to see me back among
them again. There has been a good deal of sickness
in my company since I left. Several of them have
had to go to Hospital but I am happy to hear that
none of their cases are dangerous. Sam McCulley
is the sickest man among them, but he has got
better, at least out of all danger if he dont take
a relapse. You need not feel uneasy about
Bill his throat is quite well again, and the cough
and hoarseness have left him entirely and he is
quite well every other way.
I have not got my boxes up yet-they will be at the
depot tonight-but the roads are so bad it may
be a day or two before I get them up, and we have
just Received orders to go out on picket tomorrow
morning at nine OClock, and will be gone
four days so it will be thursday night before
I will have a chance of writing you again, at
which time you may expect to hear from me again
Write me soon and often I love to get a letter from you
out here, the place looks very cheerless without your and
Dear little Maggies smiling faces, but I hope soon to
be with you again and have more time to spend with
you. Give Maggie one of your sweet kisses for me and
take hers in return from your Devoted

William

[in top margin of page 1]
I will write Jink as soon as I
get back from Picket

William Anderson, Captain, Co. J, 4th South Carolina Volunteers (Palmetto Sharpshooters)

MSS 10366

[from the diary of James Dinsmore Templeton, musician and private in the 23rd Ohio, currently on furlough]

Went to church on the
Sled this morning
Called at the Drts and
got some calomel pils for
the jaundice. Dr. thinks
I ought not to go to
camp until better
cloudy Fogg snow
melting

MSS 10317

[from the diary of Jesse Calvin Spaulding, Co. F, 25th Massachusetts, currently detailed to the Commissary Dept. and assigned to the Steamer “Admiral”]

Slept on stools part of the night
on the floor with my blanket over me
Quartermaster Brown was here this forenoon
and told me it was all right for me
to stay here. So I am easy about that now
I felt very bad this morning. My head felt
bad and my eyes. But I feel much better
than I did. Col Upton and Brown came
aboard again this afternoon. May God hear
our prayers and grant them most mercifully
as well as those of our friends who are
far away. We still lie here as usual. I
have been occupied chiefly in reading the
Bible, finishing Genesis and reading part of
Exodus.

MSS 11293

My dear Mother

You can not well con-
ceive the pleasure I had in
receiving your & father’s letter
last Friday. They always give
me intense pleasure. But the ad-
ditional pleasure I often think
no one ever had such a father
as I have. I received at the
same time a letter from Miss
McKenney & Duprey containing
10 dollars & 12 stamps. I am sorry
you gave yourself the trouble
of sending more stamps as
I had procured some. You also sent five dollars more than
I wrote for. I think I
told you the last time
I wrote that I had moved

[p. 2]
into my house. It is much
more confortable than a
tent. The weather up here had
been very bad for some
time. I do not think the
Yankees could make an ad-
vance this weather, unless
they kept on a pike. The
army up here had gone
into winter quarters. Some
sixteen of our company have
been moved over to a fort
closely [closeby?]. Three out of my hut
was moved with them
so that there are only
two of us in the hut
now. Except three who are
staying with us until they
build a house, wh: I think
they are nearly done.
I have been confined to my

[p. 3]
tent several days with mu-
mps. That is I have no
doubt it was mumps. There
has been a case of mumps
in camp about long
enough before I was sick
for me to take it. Dr. Pal-
mer at first did not think
it was mumps. I believe he
does now however. If it was it
was quite a mild case. Both
jaws were swollen just un-
der the ears. Not much tho’
My head felt quite badly & still
does tho not quite as much.
The swelling is gone having
lasted two or t three or four days.
I had constant difficulty in
keeping my back & shoulders
warm ^’& still have at times.’ I had also a good
deal of fever. I think I am

[p.4]
nearly well. I took calomel
once only – And once some of Ayre’s
Pills, for the latter I am very
much obliged to you. I have
received them twice. You in-
quire after the box you sent:
I thought I told you that
nothing whatever was inju-
red. All was in the best or-
der. give my love to Mrs. Smith.
Tell her I sends this order think-
ing it might be of benefit to
her. What did you all think
of Pollard & Hagan’s John.
What Mr. Dickinson said about
Miss Maria & the flowers was
only to please me or you all one
I reckon. Oh how I wish to-
morrow was the day for
me to get a letter from you.
Tell George I sincerely hope he
may never have the hardships

[written in the top margin on page 4:]
of a soldier to undergo. Lan writes
in rather bad spirits tho’ he says
he is cheerful & in fine spirits. I re-

[written in the top margin on page 1:]
ceived a few days ago a letter
from cousin Loa. she is truly
an excellent woman. I think

[written in the top margin on page 2:]
you & father judge –hardly. what
did Mort Chumney say about it?
Poor Charles Jones: What a sad sad

[written in the top margin on page 3:]
death. God grant he was better
prepared than he was thought. I do
not feel like stopping but must. My
best love to the kindest of fathers, dear

[written between the lines on page 3:]
dear little George & remember me
most kindly to Miss Emily.
Your Devoted son,
W.H. Perry Jr.

University of Virginia alumnus Dr. William Price Palmer [1821-1896] served as physician to the Howitzers, and later was a writer on historical topics. Another family split by the war, his father, the merchant Charles Palmer was a well known unionist who was briefly held in “Castle Godwin.”

[Transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 7786-d

[from the diary of Daniel D. Logan, younger brother of Confederate general Thomas M. Logan and a Sergeant, Co. B, 1st Special Battalion (Rightor’s), Louisiana Infantry]

chill Harry panicked

Rose at 8 o’clock – Breakfasted at Lizzies –
Went to church & walked home with
Miss Hettie – Dined at Lizzies – Left for
Camp at 3 o’c with three prisoners –
Make up report for Maj’ Beard &
spent the evening in the Lions Den-
Wrote a letter to Bro Geo to go
by Fred Ogden. Sent him two blank
notes One signed & embossed
Stanhope Posey spent the evening with us –
Did not report for duty tonight –
Faries & Rawle returned from Yorktown
today with our pay up to the 1st Inst

[Miss Harriette Cary, a famous Confederate belle; her letters are also posted in this blog]

[Bro[ther] Geo[rge] is George William Logan, II, 1828-1896]

[Lt. Thomas A. Faries, Co. B, 1st La. Bn.]

[Capt. Francis Rawle, Co. C, 1st La. Bn.]

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards; annotations by Robert K. Krick]

MSS 6154

My Darling Wife
I have been trying to
find a letter from you and sup-
pose it is here or on the way
but the mail has not been received
in camp for some days, and
every thing is in confusion.
We left Ungers Monday morning
and reached here on Wednes
day after three days hard march
on roads as bad as rain sleet
and snow could make them.
For some time since we reached
here it has been raining and
the whole country is flooded
with water – Since we left Win
chester three weeks ago we have
indeed been making war upon
the elements and our men have
stood an amount of hardship
and exposure which I would not
have thought was possible had
I not witnessed it. In passing
through it all I have suffered but
little and my health is now as
good as it ever was. Whilst this
is true of myself, our ranks have
been much thinned by disease

[page 2]
since we left Winchester. Two
battles would not have done us
as much injury as hard weather
and exposure has effected –
After writing to you last Sunday I
concluded to write to the Gov to
consider my resignation as with
drawn and I would trust to
the chance of getting a furlough
to go home. I am promised it as
soon as Echols returns and his fur
lough is out 16 days from this time
I hope Jackson will have concluded
by that time that a winter camp-
aign is fruitful of disaster only as
it has been and will put us at
rest until Spring. Then I may ex-
pect to see you –
Now, Darling, just here the mail has
come to hand bringing your letter
of 15th inst and the gratifying news
that all are well at home. You say
the sleet & snow were falling whilst
you wrote and you felt some
anxiety lest I might be exposed
to it – You were just about right.
I left that morning at day break
and marched in sleet & snow some
15 miles to this place – when I got
here the cape of my overcoat was a
sheet of ice. If you have hard times
you may console yourself by knowing
that I have hard times too –

[page 3]
I am amused with your fears of an inroad
of the Yankees into Rockbridge. Their near-
est force is about 80 miles from you
and if the roads in that section have
not improved very much, they will
have a hard road to travel. You
all are easily scared. By the time
you had been near the Yankees as
long as I have you would not be
so easily frightened.
You must come to the conclusion
which has forced itself upon me
some time since – Beare the present
in patience & hope for the best – if
it turns out bad console ourselves
with the reflection that it is no
worse – We can see nothing of the
future and it is well for us we
don’t. I have but little idea today
where I will sleep to night, or
what I shall be doing to morrow
Our business is all uncertainties
I have been in great danger only once
since I have been in the service
Yet I suppose I have thought a hun-
dred times that we were on the
eve of a battle which might ter-
minate my life. Now after all Love
I think it best to trouble myself little
with fears of danger, and to find
happiness in the hope that you
and I and our dear children
will one day live together again
happily and in peace –

[page 4]
It may be dearest this hope will never
be realized – Yet I will cherish it as
my greatest source of happiness to
be abandoned only when my flowing
blood and failing breath shall teach
me that I have seen the last of earth
All may yet be well with us
I am very sorry to hear of your
mothers bad health. Give my
love to her and say that I hope
she may soon be well. Rem-
ember me also to your father. I
feel very grateful to him for the
assistance which he has given you
in my absence. I would be very
much indebted to him or some
one else who would aid you on
getting the plaster and clover
seed which will be needed on
the farm this spring –
Now Love I will take leave
of you until next Sunday –
Kiss Mathew Gala & the baby
for me and don’t suffer your
self to be disappointed again
by my not coming home. I am
as eager to get there as you are
to see me, but don’t expect me
until you see me.
Goodbye dearest
Ever yours
E F Paxton

[The above letter is in Civil War Letters of General Frank “Bull” Paxton, but with a few omissions.]

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

Elisha Frank “Bull” Paxton, University of Virginia alumnus, commanded the 27th Virginia Infantry and later the 1st “Stonewall” Brigade.

MSS 2165

Dear Father I received your letter of the 13th last night & enclosed in it was a etter from Mother, I am well but it is raining quite hard & the mud is as Much as a a foot thick deep you said that you sent two stamps to me I have not received them yet but I do not need them now I have Bought some since I have been paid off, I think it is kind of strange that I do not get any answer from A letter that I wrote to George much as two weeks ago, you said you would like to have me write to tell you what Camp or every day duty, the first thing to do is to get up at roll call at six in the morning then comes the doctors call which is at seven then comes the breakfast call which is at eight then comes the Guard call which is at halfe past eight then comes the drill it is Just as the General orders, he may order A Brigade or Battalion or Company drill either of these comes off at halfe past ten Oclock if it is Brigade drill the General will drill the hold[sic] Brigade or if it is A battalion drill the Colonel will drill the regiment or if it is Company drill the Captain or Commanding
Officer will drill his own company our company is learning the Zouave drill which we have been learning for over three Months, you wanted to know who was our Captain we have not got no Captain but I suppose Lieutenant Harris will be made Captain & second Lieutenant Deering will be First Lieutenant, when we come off these drills there is dinner call which is at twelve then comes dress Parade which is changed from seven in the evening to four in the afternoon then comes supper at Five then comes taps at eight & taps at nine when we have to turn in then our days work is dun. From you Son Joseph Leavitt.

Letters from Joseph Leavitt of the 5th Maine and his brother George of the 5th New York were copied into a ledger by their father John Leavitt in October 1865 “because they are of value to me and I was fearful that they might get mislaid.” Both boys were mortally wounded in the war, George at Second Bull Run, August 30, 1862, and Joseph at Spotsylvania, May 18, 1864.

MSS 66

Quarters of Rockbridge Artillery
1st Brigade Army of the Valley

Mrs. Wm. M. Blackford Lynchburg

My Dear Mother
I despatched
a long letter to you on the 11th Inst. from
Hunger’s Cross Roads, and another from this
place yesterday. The first was 28 pages &
the other 32. I trust they were received.
Berkeley Minor this morning received
from Charles a letter from Charles dated
“Fredericksburg–Jan. 13,” announcing the death
of my beloved Uncle John. I need not
tell you that this intelligence shocks
and grieves me deeply: nor need I more
to assure you of my devout thankfulness
to God for the blessed hope left us by the
exercises of her last days that he has gone
to the Christian’s reward. This Charles men-
tioned briefly: I am extremely desirous to
hear more of it and trust you will as
soon as possible give me all the particulars
you can. Whatever surprise I felt at hear-
ing this joyful intelligence is due to lack of
confidence in God’s faithfulness to his promises
For why should we not have fully expected

[page 2
that one who for so many years had
been the subject of so many prayers, and
particularly that the child of such a
mother’s prayers, should, even at the elev-
enth hour, have been brought to repen-
tance and moved to seek and to gain
a share in the Christian’s inheritance?
There is great comfort in this thought,
and there is excellent reason in it for
believing that this death-bed repentance
is not obnoxious to those painful doubts
generally incident to such. do you not
agree with me in thinking so?

I had been thinking much of my dear
old Uncle lately for various reasons. The
last letter I got from him was the one
tendering me the carpet for my tent, of
which I wrote to you. I have now in
my pocket-book a number of C.S. postage stamps
enclosed to me in a letter from him received
on Christmas Day. I have recently finished
a second perusal of “Dombey & Son,” in which
you may recollect the beautiful delineation
of the affectionate devotion of “Uncle Sol” to
Walter Gay his nephew. In reading of this

[page 3]
I was constantly reminded of the love of
my old uncle to his nephews, in no wise
behind that of the character in the novel.
The closeness of the analogy will strike
you strongly and pleasantly if you recol-
lect the story, which I know you have once
read. I have long been in the
habit of praying for the conversion of my
uncles, and particularly of Uncle John. The
last thing I recollect before sleeping last
night was an earnest supplication in his
behalf: I had just finished breakfast this
morning when Charles’ letter came announ-
cing his death. I humbly trust that these
prayers, and yours, and those of many other
Christian people, have been now answered,
and that we all have another abundant
reason to have faith in the efficacy of prayer.
I presume from what Charles said of your
being expected in Fredericksburg that you
may have been there the day after he
wrote. In any event I suppose you will
be in possession of full particulars of his death.
I should like exceedingly to hear Cousin Brodie’s
account of it. His letters are always so interesting

[page 4]
This is a dismal little place and one which
we will be happy to leave except to go upon
another of these terrible marches. My mess however
has been very comfortable here in our kitchen, out
of which we have rarely stirred. Our living too
has been excellent here, another large and choice
lot of provisions having come yesterday to one of our
members living in Hardy. It is rumoured that our
Brigade is soon to go to Winchester. I trust it may
be so. Continue to direct my letters thither.

Please ask father to look in my large book-
trunk in the shop for a pair of Rubber Shoes, & send
them to me by Express immediately–addressed
“L. M. Blackford–Rockbridge Artillery–To be left with
Beverly R. Jones, Esq Quarter Master’s Office. Winchester, Va.“
These shoes will be a great comfort to me. I
hope father will not take anything else out of the
trunk, except for his own use, or that of some member
of the family. I like my things to be kept together.
I have written tonight in a crowd, with loud
laughing & talking around me. This will explain
discrepancies, etc.
Your affectionate son
L.M. Blackford

Lancelot Minor Blackford, 1837-1914, University of Virginia alumnus, later the beloved principal of Episcopal High in Alexandria, Va., for over 40 years.

[from the diary of Daniel D. Logan, younger brother of Confederate general Thomas M. Logan and a Sergeant, Co. B, 1st Special Battalion (Rightor’s), Louisiana Infantry]

Kept my bed until eleven o’c
today with a sick headache
when Col Rightor & Major Beard
sent for me to know if I would
take charge of a squad to
go to Williamsburg & arrest some
of the Battalion who have been
disgracing it. Left at 12 in the
ambulance with 8 men. Arrested
four men & remained all night to
arrest two more. Slept at
Mrs Kibbie Galts. [-]
Miss McIntosh to Mr Tuckers
called for her at twelve o’c – Paid
Miss Hattie a visit – Went the
rounds with Buck Finney [?] &
returnd at 12 ½ o’clock – Heard a
very queer [?] negroe prayer tonight

[Colonel Nicholas H. Rightor and Major James H. Beard, 1st La. Bn.]

Transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards; annotation by Robert K. Krick]

MSS 6154

[from the diary of James Dinsmore Templeton, musician and private on furlough from the 23rd Ohio]

Helped to clean some grain
this morning. Went to
Ashland
Took dinner with T. Arthur
called on the several
families of the Band boys
received letters for the
boys
Got pair of boots
Saw Cooper & others of the
boys
Uncle Hays rode
with us
cloudy sleighing not good

MSS 10317