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Clarksville Sept: 22d 1863.
The time has again come around, my
beloved Husband, for me to write to you, & glad am I that it is the case, for I heard from you on Saturday and it has made me more anxious to write than I should have been. Sun =day I was very lonely and wished so much for you. Alas! When shall I have the pleasure of your society? Jimmy was here today and want =ed to know if you said anything about coming home. Your letter was very unsatisfactory, being undated, and not giving an idea as to your im =pressions of S. C. or of how you were situated in any respect. When you don't know the day of the month, please be good enough to mention that of the week. I guessed that you reached Columbia on Saturday and you said you wrote the day after. I hope, for a letter this afternoon giving a full account of every thing relating to your position &c &c. How you stand the exposure and fatigue, what effect the climate has upon you, and every thing you think your wife & mother would like to know. The weather here for several days past has been very cold., and disagree =able, [?] [?] [?] [?] which we considered quite a grievance. To-day it has been perfectly charming, Mama and I spent nearly the whole morning in the garden, she gathering peas & I having some fodder pulled and lending a helping hand. The turnips & kale I write you I had sowed are coming up finely. I have also sowed some lettuce seed. They tell me it is in great demand here in the Spring. If all my seed come up, I will have a fine supply. I actually have made [?] from the garden by selling [?]. I begin to agree with Mrs. Anderson that it is my promise to save rather than to make.
In my gardening operations, I have endeavored to shade my face as much as my hat would allow remembering your objection to a wife with a nut brown skin, but the sun of to-day has had quite an effect on my skin, [?] do I this afternoon are as well as usual. Almost as if, I had had a chill tho' I don't suppose I have had. How often do I wish for you to direct in the garden, for I am so ignorant of what might to be done, and we [?] will tell me one thing and me another, from your opinion their would be no appeal. Please write me if you did not say that the cabbage from the inner part of the garden must be brought up near the house? If so when must the move be made? Any other directions or suggestions you can make will be thankfully received. The Brown corn is a good deal burnt, but I have saved a great many seed and shall save as many more. Mama rescued some parsnip seed for you which I have put away. Denying housekeeping very much , notwithstanding, the young servants who in truth do very well as a general thing it is time I had to threaten to make Toby sleep in the house if he made me get up at day-light before he would wake, this threat did some good for this morning. I took a "mornings nap" a very unusual thing. Helen opens her school at 8 o'clock, and we breakfast, of course, before that time. Until four days ago we had excellent bread and since that time it has been abominable! I am trying very hard to give them some good rolls to-night. We opened a barrel of flour from days ago, and I much fear the fault rests there. Mrs Carrington seems to think so. I shall obey your instruc =tions with regard to supplies, and I am so far from thinking that we will starve that I only wish any body could fare as well & be as well contented as we are. But the Pig the Pig-has never returned. We had Toby out
two days looking for him, but without success. You seem to fear that I have a great deal of trouble in keeping house, but I have little as possible under the cir =cumstances. The chief trouble arises from having Jimmy and Andrew to come here every night from Sunday, then take off. Toby's attention from his work and Tommy is violently opposed to doing anything to help us, even rebels about bringing a bucket of water every even =ing. Having no water in the lot is a serious inconvenience and it is with great difficulty that I can have a proper quantity of water brought. With a little assistance from the two boys there would be no difficulty. Helen & I both think the Factory [?] [?] [?] a place for them, particular =ly Tommy. Wednesday afternoon. The mail of yesterday brought one letter from you. I am quite surprised that you should have been so long in hearing from me. I wrote twice to R- and have written repeatedly to S.C. I did not finish this last night for two reasons- [?] wrote me that you
did not know how to tell one to direct, and I was really
so unwell I could hardly hold my head up. I don't now but suppose I had a chill, I have a very small lump in my right breast, and presume I have taken cold. All the morning I have been "hors de combat". but feel very smart now. To-night I think I shall take a Blue pill, and quinine to-morrow, & then I shall be well again- if not I shall wish more than ever for my dear Husband. Wednesday Sept: 30th Your letter, received last night, my beloved Husband was very welcome. A week since I had gotten a letter, and ten days since I had sent you one, seemed a long time to me whose chief pleasure consists just in hearing from you, then in writing to her Hus- =band. Night before last your letter, written on the eve of your departure from Columbia, reached Helen. I am glad you wrote to her but a letter to another does not compensate me for not getting a few lines myself-please don't think me exacting. I flatter myself you will be interested to know & took the Blue [?] & quinine and escaped the chill, applying warm [?][?] to my
breast around the lump. Now for other things. You speak in your last of my labors as a housekeeper, and of your warning &c. I have never for a moment regretted my decision with regard to keeping house. The wisdom of the cause impresses me as before. I say I have never for a moment regretted, yes I have. Last night, finding that you were in a Village, I could not help thinking of if I were otherwise situated, I might be with you. But , pleasant as it would be to both of us to be together, it is better for the Baby to have some certain abiding place. While I think of it, a pencil is better than that pale ink. You say you often fancy our boy swimming about the [glass?] if so your [?] is not correct for the young man does often condescend to swim, but jumps up by a chair, walks all about holding to Sally's hand and laughing with delight. I often wonder what you would think of him could you see him now, so interesting has he become. He learns something new almost every day. His Grand Ma looked at him reproachfully the other day and he said so distinctively that Helen and I both understood him, "Let me alone." Pretty impudent you will think for a young [beginner?]. He takes breakfast and dinner with the family, that is in the same room, blows his bread to cool it, and goes off into [?]. Becca Lee came to see him a few afternoons ago, and it was amus =ing to see with what an air he resisted all her blandishments, she smiled, and patted him, and had as many winning ways as any young lady. While he casts upon her looks of surprise and disdain, and reminded me a good deal of a certain gentleman to whom he is pretty nearly related, not that he ever bestowed any such glances on me. The boy is on all hands [?] =ed a beauty, and truly do I wish you could enjoy him. He is more unequivocally a tyrant than ever before, in your absence he claims a place by my side at night, and seems to be troubled with a perpetual thirst, for he takes constant
draughts through the night from the fountain prepared for him by nature, much to the detriment of that fountain. I awoke this morn =ing as weary as though I had never been to sleep. He refuses to lie in his cradle and I gave him a good slapping about it and tho' he carried his [?] by not going to sleep there, I think he has behaved ever since. About this time one year ago I was writing to you about another child, telling you of her sickness, my letter was late for the mail I feared, and she [?] [?] refusing to take a dose of quinine, and I thinking I had no time for soft measures, slapped her. The next day God took her to himself. How that slap has pained and smarted in my memory. If I did wrong God forgive me- and make me patient now. A year, oh so long ago, and yet such a little while. Had we no care or sorrow here, this would be too attractive, we would never look forward to Heaven and the presence of God. But, how strange it seems that she should have been taken from me, and that I should have been so blind as not to see that her precious life was ebbing slowly but surely away, leaving me on, what would have been , but for you, a desolate shore. How distinctly I hear those words, when after lying still for two hours ... her medicine it was thrown off, she said. I could not help it could I dear mother? - Dear mother, never more shall I hear those sweet words from her lips- but enough, I give you pain, and I will suffer to myself. I have no news from Tom, and have not been able to write for him, having been unable to get a carpenter I am determined for my own sake to change our dining room to the other one under the parlour. I shall be save many steps by this new a arrange =ment as I shall in that never make use of two closets, now both of little benefit. Toby has been sick for two days, and things never [?] [?]
on as well as usual. You must not imagine us uncomfortable, for many friends are looking after our wants. Fanny's Husband Henry has been bought by a man in this place, and of course, he never came out of the wood. Mr Carrington has engaged a good deal of wood for us, but the people are so slow in moving that it makes me very restless. Mr Meade, our new Minister, preached for us on Sunday last, and we were very much pleased with him. He called and made us a long visit on Monday morning. He is very gentlemanly and pleasant, and I think will make a fine preacher. He is very young and ordained only a few months ago. Yesterday Helen, Charley and I went over to Mr Carrington's. We found the girls busy attending to the [?] Mr C - turns out fifteen gallons a day. Some body said he expected to make a hundred gallons. A good deal has been made almost [?] I hear the juice is to be $10 per gal: Would it or would it not be a saving to bacon to have a gallon or two? Mamma & I think so, Helen thinks not. Helen will write to you, she says to -morrow. Mamma is pretty well. I believe I have nothing more to add, tho' doubtless after I close my [?] I shall think of something else. Pray write me often, and I will certainly send off two letters a week to you. I was indeed surprised to hear of Bland in S.C.. I got a letter from her about a week ago from Gloucester, the only one I have received. I wish you remembered where they said they were going. How far is Darlington C. H. from Florence William Washington and his wife there, tho' he is now stationed in Richmond. Can you [?] [?] some rice & sugar for us or dried fruit. I have found another pair of your drawers.
Your devoted wife
Charley sends a kiss. The ideas of my forgetting
to say how much I was pleased that you should be assigned to so honourable a position as that of Chairman of the Examining Board for Con =scripts. When will they make you a full Surgeon? I will never be satisfied until that is done.
