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Blenheim Jan 8th 1865

Sunday evening

Your most welcome letter dear

est Nina arrived on Wednesday last

but not until I had become quite

uneasy at your long silence for Mother

had mentioned in her last letter

mailed the Tuesday after Xmas that

[?] had been expecting Father over

[?] the Wednesday before & he had

not arrived & not been heard from so

then when you did not write I felt

considerable uneasiness. I am hoping

to get a letter from both Ma & Sister

by tomorrows mail. I wrote to Sister

several days before she left Albemarle

& directed it to her in Nelson, I should

have written to Mother, but she did not

give me her direction. I feel very anx

ious to hear how they got down, for the

weather was so bad I am afraid they

will not escape a cold. I am so glad you

had such a pleasant Xmas darling

so glad you had a chance to visit about

& see people a little. I hope you will go in

[Page 2]

to Richmond as often as you have the

opportunity & you must tell me if you

see any of the gentlemen you met there

again, especially Dr. [Shirley?] Carter. I

am glad too that you had an opportuni-

ty of seeing Johnston, Ewell, Etc., but I am

sorry to hear that they & most especially Gen

Robert E. Lee think we are in so much

danger, as to make it necessary to eman-

cipate our negros. Dr. H & I were talking

about that the other day & he said he

was as surprised to find too that all the

gentlemen with whom he talked [?] [?]

court Etc. were in favor of it, he thinks

the act would be [?] by the whole

country; & if we must, we must, there is

no help for i but I am very sorry. I was

quite distressed however that you did

not have my Xmas gift to wear while

you were visiting about in the city & very

uneasy lest you should not get it at all

as Mrs. Hobson is about the the large quanti-

ty of yarn she sent to Mrs. L By Emily, for

we did not know anything in the

world about Emily's honesty, and I

should be distressed to death if you

did not get it, for you must know I

think it is exceedingly pretty, besides that

I should not like to lose my coral beads

so do write & let me know if you have

gotten it, and if not go to Mrs. Stewarts &

[Page 3]

see what is the reason you don't get it. I

am very much obliged to you for the

buttons, you only sent me 10 which is

not enough for the pair, it takes 12 but

it won't matter. I have put the others

on & they do very well. I see by the

papers that Mattie is married, where is

she going to live. I am glad to hear Dug-

las [Farris?] is enjoying himself so much

but should think it would be very un-

comfortable to him to thing he was

just [travelling?[ about enjoying himself

while all the rest of his countrymen

are fighting even tho he can't help him

self. You must give my love to Cousin Emily

& to everyone who inquires for me. Who

is Capt. Chapman Lee & did Custis go with

you all there? I think he seems to be no

ladies man, nevertheless I think he

ought to have acknowledged my

gloves. By the way I got a note from

Willie acknowledging his which I will

send you. Send it to sister & tell her to

send it back to me. It is a very sweet

letter [?] I think but I won't [?]

much as it is like him, it was not

exactly what I expected, I thought he

would write more of a letter. I am

now knitting the second glove of my 11th

pair & I think I shall send these to Mr.

[Page 3]

John Bolling and the next pair, which

I shall finish about the middle of

next week I propose to send to some

body in your house, now who shall

it be, Capt Frank Stringfellow, Rob String-

fellow, John Dupuy, Willie Dupuy, or who

do you say, and body you choose only

make haste & send me his direction

whoever he be, for I don't like to [leave?]

nice warm gloves lying unused this

weather. I will just write your [name?]

on a card & put it in & they will not

notice the past work, or understand

it if they do. And then what do you

think I have a mind to do with the

next pair, send them to Cousin David

I got a letter from [same?] by the last

mail containing another message

from cousin David. He says, "I have not

seen Uncle David for a fortnight, he told

me to send his best regards to you, & that

you must not think because he don't come

down to see you he don't care about com-

ing, but that old Jeff keeps him so straight

that he don't have time to leave the coun-

ty." Now what do you think of our Cousin

David, ain't he a queer one. it is as you

say very pleasant to be most dearly loved

and very hard to give up that love.

[sideways on page 1]

one can't help feeling anxious [?] [?] all they can to

keep it up, but I don't understand these men, & I reckon never

shall. I don't understand Willie, your Willie I mean, it

may be as you think, but then I should think he would

have sent you some message, that he would have desired

to keep himself on your mind. Did [Lavalette?] say no-

thing of him in connection with you. I am very

anxious to know whether John will go to see you

I hope he will & I think he will too. What answer did

you send to his note, which by the way is a very nice one

but not as sweet as my Willie's. As to Friend [Markoo?] nothing

more could be expected from him as he was only a

railroad acquaintance he might be expected to trav-

el off as fact. Tell me when you write what you think &

[sideways on pages 2 and 3]

hear of all. You ask how near I am to the [canal?], about

16 miles is the nearest point when I could strike it, but

there is no public conveyance in that direction, and

a this present time the road even within a half mile

of the house is perfectly impassable in any way except on

horseback, our mails come on horseback and we are

in daily fear that that may be stopped, so if you should

not hear from me at any time you may know the

reason. You ask why I did not go to Mrs. W. Hobsons during

Xmas week, because I was sick all the week, had one of

my worst attacks of what I always called nervous head-

ache but Dr. H says it is [?] but either the Dr.s little

pills or some much larger ones of quinine which Mrs.

W. H. sent me secretly have relieved me entirely. I feel

remarkably well now. You will be amused when I tell

you that to prevent a return [of?] [this?] I am taking

one drop of some preparation of sulphur once a week.

Will Minnie take Mother's place at Mrs. Poleski's or what

will she do. Did Aunt Bec have her baby with her, you

never tell me anything of Frank's children is the baby

pretty. And you never told me whether Mrs. Redd had

ever had her baby or what became of it, also does Brother

Bartlett ever come to see Pattie now. Did the Stewarts not

invite you to their house at all to stay during the Xmas

and did Mrs. L ever go to see Brother. I think it was a

great shame if she did not, and I don't expect she

ever did. I think she is the most complete woman of the

world & hypocrite I ever saw, she goes to see no one but

those whom either she thinks it will be an advantage to

her or her children. To be able to say they know or [?]

that she can patronize and she does nothing without a

motive, and Belle is just like her, Marry I reckon is more

like her father, whom I admire exceedingly well I

[sideways across page 4]

believe I have exhausted myself & all I have to say, as you

will suppose when I begin to talk about my neighbors in

that way so I will stop. My watch cost [$10?] and seems to

be in very good order. I am delighted at the prospect

of getting some corsets even if they are so large as to o-

blige me to take a seam up each side and they are very

cheap, are they nice? Good night. Write soon to your

loving sister

Hattie.