Monthly Archives: March 2012

11 March 1862: “Dear Charles don’t apply the torch to your barns. it is too dreadful and I cannot but think it unwise. What God bestows upon man for subsistence should not be recklessly disposed of in destruction.”

Posted on 11 Mar ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 11 March 1862, believed to be from John Gough North, Badwell Plantation (S.C.) to his son-in-law Charles L. Pettigrew of Scuppernong, N.C. North writes of the scarcity of provisions, the movement of slaves, and cautions Charles against … Continue reading →

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10 March 1862: “Subordination to Lee is one thing, subordination to Pemberton an entirely different thing.”

Posted on 10 Mar ’12 by

Item description: In this letter, dated 10 March 1862, William Henry Trescot, a South Carolina state legislator, wrote to William Porcher Miles, a member of the Confederate Congress, to complain of the injustice of Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley being … Continue reading →

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9 March 1862: “is it possible that the Recruiting angel from the unknown world has again broken into our family circle and taken one in the very bloom of youth…”

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Item description: Letter, 9 March 1862, from Emmett Cole to his sister Celestia. Cole expresses his great sadness at hearing the news of the death of their brother, Edgar. Item citation: From folder 2 of the Emmett Cole Letters #5002-z, … Continue reading →

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8 March 1862: “I wrote you in my last that Thommy Saunders was dead. this is not so he was almost dead but is getting better. so if you have told anyone so please contradict it, as it may make his folks feel bad for nothing.”

Posted on 8 Mar ’12 by

Item description: This is the second in a series of four letters, which were written in 1862 by William B. Alexander to his wife Mary F. Alexander.  In this letter, Alexander writes describing his experiences on the gunboat U.S.S. Hussar, … Continue reading →

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7 March 1862: “A great many bodies have been taken up and still the woods are thick with groups of graves with rudely carved boards for tombstones to show where their last remains repose.”

Posted on 7 Mar ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 7 March 1862, from Robert Stuart Finley to his fiancee, Mary A. Cabeen. Finley was a member of the 30th Illinois Infantry, a Union regiment engaged in the siege and taking of Fort Donelson on the 13th, … Continue reading →

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6 March 1862: “We are now in the midst of a great calamity”

Posted on 6 Mar ’12 by

Item description: Entry, dated 6 March 1862, from the diary of Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball. In this entry, Grimball writes from Charleston that eighty-four of the slaves had left Grove Plantation and run away to Edisto, causing her husband, … Continue reading →

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5 March 1862: :”…I cannot go scouring the country to run from Yankees. I should despise myself…”

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Item description: Letter, 5 March 1862, from Louisa Fredericka Alexander Gilmer in Savannah, Ga., to her husband, Jeremy Francis Gilmer, an engineer with the Confederate Army. Louisa wrote to encourage her husband to keep his faith in the justness of … Continue reading →

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4 March 1862: “I desire a position in your company if you, and your men think me worthy of it, either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Lieutenancy…”

Posted on 4 Mar ’12 by

Item description: Letter, 4 March 1862, from John Riggs to John Richardson in which Riggs is seeking a commission as a lieutenant in Richardson’s company (company L of the 41st Mississippi Infantry Regiment). According to service records, it appears that … Continue reading →

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3 March 1862: “…in hopes soon to hear that this trouble will be settled so we can go home.”

Posted on 3 Mar ’12 by

Item description: William B. Alexander was born in Plymouth, Mass., around 1832. He worked as a carpenter in Boston before enlisting with the Union Army as a second lieutenant in Company B of the 3rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, April 1861. … Continue reading →

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2 March 1862: “Pleasant had a prayer meeting in our quarters.”

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Item description: Short entry, 2 March 1862, from the diary of Henry K. White, soldier in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Item citation: From folder 1 of the Henry K. White Diaries #5013-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North … Continue reading →

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