Letter from Pinopolis, September 9, 1862 — war news, wounded relatives (page 1)
Book 1, Page 85 ·1862
Transcription
A multi-page handwritten letter, page 1 of multiple, written in faded brown ink on light blue paper. The dateline sits at the upper right; the closing — written sideways across the top edge in the same hand (a typical cross-write to save paper) — gives the signature.
[Cross-write across the top edge, in the same hand:] my love to all the household. All well here at the Barrows — yours aff. Ellen
Pinopolis Sept 9^th 1862
Mother has been writing to you about Father & whatever news we have of Tody & there is little else to think of now beyond the war. Yesterday the news came of Henry Stevens being wounded & today Hennie went off with Mr. Thomas Ravenel & Mrs. Catherine Palmer & Eliza who are going on to see Gendron, who is wounded through the lung — It is very distressing for Hennie expects to be confined in five weeks & she really is not fit to go to undergo the fatigue & excitement — Tonight a letter came, saying that Henry was wounded in both thigh & one arm, all flesh wounds & doing well so far — Gendron’s wound had not bled or shown any signs of inflamation & W^m. Henry Cain was detailed to attend them, at Manassa[s] — We hear that there is no railway communication between Manassa[s] & Richmond so I trust when Hennie gets to Richmond she will decide to come back home as Henry will be well attended by friends & she will be running a great risk — She took Rose with her — You don’t know how she looks — but it is not to be wondered at — I went over to see her one morning, & she talked all the time about Laura, & Henry — She tries to bear her trouble & it was really touching to hear her talk — She has been less outwardly excited & more cheerful than one would have expected but her face looks wan & wasted — I feel very sorry for Anna Maria Cain, for she has just to keep quiet no matter what happens — She has been sick for five weeks but not always in bed — I went to the Bar[r]ows to dine & went over to see Sam & his Kate but after waiting till one o’clock I went off without seeing them. I daresay we will be going there again soon — They all seem much pleased — Our Kate was well & seemed to be
AI Notes
Page 1 of a multi-page handwritten letter on light blue paper, dated Pinopolis, September 9th, 1862, signed (in cross-write at the top) yours aff. Ellen. The writer reports war news to a family correspondent: Henry Stevens has been wounded; Hennie has set out by rail with Mr. Thomas Ravenel, Mrs. Catherine Palmer and Eliza to see Gendron, wounded through the lung. The writer worries about Hennie traveling so near her confinement (five weeks off). Later news adds that Henry was wounded in both thigh and one arm — flesh wounds, doing well — and Wm. Henry Cain has been detailed to attend them at Manassa[s]. Visits to Anna Maria Cain and to the Barrows household (Sam & his Kate) close the page. Letter continues onto the next scan.
Letter continues on next page.
Pinopolis was a pineland summer village in St. John’s Berkeley parish — settled by Lowcountry planters from the 1830s onward as a refuge from the malarial “country fever” of the rice plantations, and by 1862 a wartime shelter for displaced families. The wounded relatives the writer references “at Manassas” were casualties of the Second Battle of Bull Run, 28–30 August 1862, a Confederate victory that nonetheless cost the South some 8,000 casualties. This letter, dated only ten days after the battle, records the household news as it reached the Lowcountry — and the dread of Hennie, five weeks from her confinement, setting off northward by rail to nurse her wounded kin. The “Barrows,” where Ellen is writing from, is the household she splits across a line break later in the body (“I went to the Bar/rows to dine”).