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[1]

Mt Pleasant [Prince Edward County, Va] Mar[ch] 21st 1863

My Dear Sister

We were so glad to get a letter from you written in your own hand, though we were glad always to get Millie’s letters & were sorry to have her stop writing. Tell her she owes me a letter now. I have been wanting to answer your letter but have not been able until now & so I take this snowy day for it. Mr. Redd says he begins to think it isn’t March for there is too much snow on the ground for March. He looks right low spirited his lambs are dying so & the negroes & children are taking the whooping cough & cough so much around him & he is very backward with his crop has sowed very few oats. He has had a great deal of sickness in his family this winter. We all dread the whooping cough very much some of the negro children are very sick with it the white ones are coughing very badly but we don’t know whether it is whooping cough or bad colds. Poor little [Fran?] had a very hard cough. We fear it will go very hard with her. She is so fat. She is a great pet with us loves to stay with Ma & me, runs all about & says a few words very distinctly but doesn’t try much to talk. Mia is as well as she has been for some time & is at work almost all the time. She has darned up all my cotton stockings & seemed to take great pleasure in it which I am sure I did. Sister Sue is as busy as a hen with our chicken. She has very few chickens but [?] enough to take care of this weather. Miss Powell she teaches here has only Mr. Redd’s children & [Emena?] Henry Redd & Samuel Booker. The school is limited to that number. Sister Sue has a beautiful Piano cost 925$ Brother dick says almost as much as Mr Redd give for the old mill. Miss Powell doesn’t play so Em ma & [Emnea?] Henry go to Col[onel] Duprys twice a week & take lessons from his teacher. I hope Brother Nat[thaniel] is at home during this snow he wrote me word that he had bought a furlough. He is right good about writing to us though it seems a long time between the letters. Broth er Dick is at home now. He had a twenty days furlough. He was in a charge a few days before he came home & lost another horse though he got a very good one in exchange. They were on a scout, it was during the last snow, & were ordered to charge on the Yankees, which the[y] met in large force.

[Marginalia – Top of Page] I have a heap to tell you but can’t write more now Give a great deal of love to all of the friends for us all. We love you so much kiss Minnie & Charlie for [m]e Your loving Sister Pattie

[2]

He was commanding a squadron (2 companies). He said he started & looked to see if the others were following him & his horse ran up in some brush a limb struck him on the knees & he fell throwing D[struck-through] Dick over his head into a very large mud hole. He gathered himself up & looked for his horse. He had run on a head & gone to the Yankees who were running pell mell back as hard as they could. The horse carried saddle & blankets on with him. But Gen[eral] Fitz[hugh] Lee gave him a beautiful iron grey Yankee horse with an eligant army sad dle & two Yankee blankets new that were almost as good as his own, some thoug [‘some thoug’ struck-through] were all taken in the charge & told him that the government would pay him for his other horse. He says he was

  it was about ten in the mor[n]ing 

wringing wet ^ until night but had to go along with the company as they were twenty or thirty miles from camp & his feet were almost frozen. But he got his furlough a few days after & came home as fat & well as I ever saw him & as cheerful & hearty. I sup pose you have seen Gen[eral] [“Jeb”] Stuart’s last dispatch. Gen[eral] Fitz[hugh] Lee is Brother Dick[‘s] Brigadier [General] so his company must have been in the fight. We dread at hear from them. Hal Edmunds had just gotten back to camp. We are so glad Brother Dick happened to be at home. He, Mollie & the children came up last week & staid a day & night. They are all very well. [Ammie?] is a beautiful child & so independent & Emmie is very much like Brother Nat they both look very fat & hearty. I wish so much we could have you & Brother Nat & your little ones come & stay some with us. Mrs. Whittaker has lately gotten letters from Miss Sarah Skinner. She makes very particular inquiries after you & cousin Judy Graham & all at your Pa’s says she feels the same towards her southern friends she always has. She & Mary Ballantine have been keeping up a brisk correspon dence in order to hear from their southern friends oftener. She says Sister & all of the family are well all at home except Anna, who is teaching at Glendale & Hal who started to India as missionary last fall. They don’t expect to hear from him before April. We haven’t heard from Brother Will’s this week they were all well when I heard last. I will get the receipt for Blackberry wine for you when I see sister Kate again. Tell Eliza her mother has a little daughter named Mollie. I hope she is well by this time & will be some help to you. Hal Edmunds came & staid

[Marginalia]

one night with us when he was at home. Millie is staying at her Pa’s & Fannie is living there

[3]

Mrs. Whittaker is speaking of going back to the north & taking her Mother & Willie with her. She wants to go next month [Mrs. H?] is as helpless as Ma. Cousin Polly [?] has gotten a letter from Cousin Judy Rice. She writes that every thing is very cheap there corn 60 c[en]ts per lb[‘ear’ overwritten] bacon 4 c[en]t per lb. & salt 3 c[ent]s lb calico 35 c[ent]s a y[ar]d but says no mans life is [safe?]. Col[onel] Rice never leaves his farm has left it only twice for a year & that was to enroll though he is 68 years old. Charles & William Rice are at home

[Marginalia]

She didn’t mention John [S?] [?] he is in the army.

[4]

John & Bettie are very well fixed at Kate Hill & Mrs. McCambell living with them. Millie’s Husband has a substitute. John not well enough yet to go in the army but rides about the country. Mr. Redd got 40 & 42$ for the last two Hogsheads of good tobacco he sent down. The tobacco bill meets with the approval of all of the farmers about here & so does the impressment bill