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Ritchie-Harrison Papers
Folder 190
AL 29 Oct [18]61
[Margaret Ritchie Stone], to [?]
Re: directions about sending letters; "possibility of communicating with our Va friends"; troop movements; identification of Margaret as Dr. Stone's wife; meeting with Eliza Bell; "bombardment of Charleston"; state of an old house once owned by the Ritchies; sale of property. 5 pp.
Letter to "My darling child" yet signed "your fondly attached Sister" Letter perhaps incomplete
Wednesday night Oct 29/61
My darling child.
Strange isnt it, I only received your letter (written on Saturday) today & now I hasten to reply to it, on Mrs Thomas' account. I wish she had sent me her letter instead of inquiring about it, for I could so easily have enclosed it in my letter to Jenny yesterday, for I sent off a long letter enclosing several, [illegible] among the number. At all events I will do what I can for her, & if she will send me her letter sealed in an envelope, I will do my best to send it, & be sure to remember my directions about getting a reply, tell her, to enclose in her letter a W [?] stamp & request her correspondent to put it upon the sealed envelope containing her reply, then put this letter, into another envelope directing it to "W M Randolph Esq. Moorefield. Hardy Co. Va." & put in a slip of paper a request that Mr R would inclose it to "Richard Randolph Esq. Washington D.C." I will tell my friend Mr R to be on the lookout for such a letter & to send it to me the moment he receives it, & she shall have it the next mail. Tell her, I requested [?], to enclose a confederate stamp to Mr R to pay for the one, he will have A. see if ever he receives my letter, & he had better do the same, as poor man, he will have a tremendous stamp toll to pay, if he has to [?] all the letters [?]. With my love to Mrs J, tell her this is the only way on earth, I now know of, by which there is a possibility of communicating with our Va friends, & even this may fail. Tell her to lose no time, (I was very near telegraphing her this morning) as Mr A told me, before sending my last letter, that troops seem to be assembling in that part of the county, & this only way of communication might be closed. Tell her not to sign her name & not to call a name, but to write very cautiously, so that no one can understand her letter. My friend wont tell how he manages, but he received a reply to a letter from Richmond, by this [?], as quick, as the mail could have carried it. I must confess all the time, I was writing, y feeling was, "dearest Jinny never will send this letter". It was a whip to me, to hear Catherine had reached her destination, she told you of my difficulty at the depot, & my having to get Millard's driver to certify to my being "the Dr's wife" & he followed me & asked me if I was Mrs Stone sure enough" so that [?] had to see him & assure him, he had not been imposed upon. Tell Catherine; I had a visit from Mary [Stuff?] just now, [?] her up about her trunk, as she wants to go to [?] herself next week, I advised her to see Dolly & ask him to have the lock on Catherine's trunk fixed for Mary to take with her & then they can exchange in Balt. Ask her if I did right. Have you seen Virginia, do tell her Eliza Bell has been [?] & engaged. He [?] she left Aimee came up here, for me to go to Eliza's but of course she was out & I left word for her to come & see me, but that was not [?] enough, for the little [?] so up she came [?] & only to [?] & waited until after one o'clock, for me to send & have an interview in my parlor, now remember, she is not wanted until June. Do pray tell Va not to let Aimee know we [?] at it for the world but she will be [?]. Tell her Elizabeth is with me now, having finished [?] Ohio [?], which she [?] magnificent. Did you see how the sun gave it to you today about Marshall Home's and exercise? I was [?] glad to see those comforts had been provided & I have no doubt it was owing to your instruction. I hear to night the object of the expedition is to bombard Charleston! By the way, did you ever let Mrs Thomas Gittings know, that Erskine had gone with it, under Sir Sherman? [?] she [?] it however. Oh! what a end [?] I had on Monday to our old house! Some friends from Pittsburgh were anxious to attend a [?] miserable sale & insisted upon my going, & if I could have gotten off, I would not have gone, I should loved to have gone with you alone, but to see such a promiscuous crowd all over our dear old home, was more than I could stand, & oh! how terribly [?[ the home is, great holes 2 feet square, punched in the wall, so as to expose the bricks of which the house is built, this was in Mama's room right under hte window, & from Sister Bella's room to her dressing room, you could push your hand as easily as if, passing it through & under! This dressing room, (leading out to the porch) is connected into a bath room, & the wall or ceiling of the parlor is a might [?] owing to leaking! I dont see how the Secretary of the Navy could give us $1200 for it, in the condition in which it is, I have no [?] he will require at least a year's rent to be expended, before he will go into it. The walls covered with pencil marks, paint duty & upon the whole the shabbiest looking establishment, I ever say. Patty Dahl [?] said she didnt feel as if the house were the same one, that used to her so cheerful - Not a word of Eliza Cross yet, nor [?] her finds the [?] of her, for one to here Mrs [?] in Balt this winter. I hear she has rented her home to the Assistant Secretary of War for $2500! a pretty good sum, dont you think so? It is after tax, & you must be heartily tired of me by this. So with love to Mr J & all at the Cottage, believe me to be most [?]
your fondly attached sister
I have a sort of hope of seeing my dyed tomorrow, as Elisabeth is waiting for it, & I when it will be a [?] stuff thing when it has gone. I always did hate a dyed silk. Remember us all kindly to Va Elizabeth & Catherine, entre nous, I was too much amused at the distress of the latter, on her way to the cons. All the way down in the carriage, she kept her face covered with her [?], & wouldnt be comforted. All for Dolly's benefit he was on the [?]. Has she received her [?] yet?
