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Letters About Mississippi

"There is 15000 soldiers here. At night I can look out of my window & can see the camp fires all over the hills. There is about 250 tents besides the houses are all very near full of soldiers. There is 3500 Mississippi troops here about 2000 Alabamers 600 Kentuckians. They have 40 or 50 cannon here & more are coming today. They have a large 32 pounder station above the Powder Magazine which commands the Railroad. It will shoot 5 miles. " - Letter, May 23, 1861, W. B. Gallaher at Harpers Ferry, Virginia to his mother, E. C. Gallaher.

"We regret the loss of Vicksburg, becasue of the noble stand she has made & the heroic endurance of her citizens & soldiers [page 3] but she is not the Confedracy & freedom does not die with her -- its fall sets free a band of noble spirits to harrass and annoy the enemy in his imagined possession of the Mississippi & he will find his much coveted & dearly obtained prize an apple of Sodom now he has gained it ---" July 14, 1863, Augusta County, Virginia Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara A. Hotchkiss. Hd. Qrs 2nd Corps 2 Miles E. of Martinsburg VA.

"Mary we are about to lose all of our good neighbors, Mrs Campbell is going to Mississippi next fall, Mrs McLaughlin has gone some five or six miles [page 4] from us to Mt Agnes to live hope you will get to see Mrs Campbell before she leaves I have been quite busy this spring have just got done making soap & dying my Black wool a very pretty black I have now got it to pick I wish you were here to help me. I have an old black woman living with me but she is very little help to me I have nearly all the work to do, my paper is nearly give out & I will have to stop." - M. L. Roadcap to her daughter in-law Mary McGuffin. Augusta County: Martha L. Roadcap to Charles and Mary McGuffin, May 12, 1866. Near Goshen, VA

"I heard of a very narrow escape a cousin of mine had when the labratory at Jackson, Mississippi, blew up. He is one of the officers in charge of it and only happened to be out of the building at the time, because he was sick. I am so thankful he was not hurt. He is one of my favorite cousins. You may have heard me speak of him, Steve Kinney, he was at West Point when you were here." - Augusta County: Lizzie Fackler to Mary, November 18, 1862. Staunton, VA.

"I think from your letter that you must have misunderstood my allusions to the battle. I was in the fight of Sunday the 21 st ult. and it was that of which I spoke. I had not heard that the Augusta troops were in the battle. I thought that all of Gen. Johnson's force arrived too late for the fight. We have all of Gen. Evans Brigade here now consisting of three Mississippi Regiments besides our Virginia one. I expect more force will be sent up here before long and we will be ordered to cross the river and march on to Washington. I hope to dine there at Gautier's soon." - Augusta County: Clinton Hatcher to Mary Anna Sibert, August 14, 1861

"I met a Mississippian the other morning in the regiment who had given out on the march, and as he got in the carriage with me to ride I recognized him to be one of Judge Ferry's sons whom I had met at Georgetown college. One of the old Columbian students is also in our brigade from Mississippi. It is so pleasant to meet old acquaintances in that way out in the army." --Augusta County: Clinton Hatcher to Mary Anna Sibert, August 14, 1861

"The Missipians have just come out for Battalion drill, their Col. is on horseback, something quite unusual with us. Our Cols. of the infantry always appear on foot. I suppose their Col. is like Napoleon, the present Emperor, who appears much better on horseback than on foot on account of his long body and short limbs. The men have just been drawing comparisons between the line of [page 7] battle marching of our regiment and the 13 th Mississippian. Our regiment really beats them awfully. In fact we have been drilling over rocks and hills so long that now our men are getting to be quite soldierlike." --Augusta County: Clinton Hatcher to Mary Anna Sibert, August 14, 1861 Camp Berkeley, VA.

Diaries

Offsite - Documenting the American South. 85 titles with subject: United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate.

Source

Valley of the Shadows: Letters, http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/, accessed April 7, 2010.


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