Torn letter fragment, c. July 1862 — domestic news, family routine (continued)

Scanned page 88 of Book 1 — Scan of original. Open full size →

A torn handwritten letter fragment, in the same hand and faded blue ink as the previous scan. The upper portion contains substantial connected text; the upper-right corner and the right edge are torn away; the bottom of the sheet has only partial line fragments.

[Top edge of preserved portion, mid-sentence:] to the chivalry of […] nations, to interpose for the protection, from […] tyranny, while the men of the country are engaged with the enemy, on the field. — I have not received any letters from home yet — I am well, but as “dirty” — aff. Tody — // We have written to him every week, & none of which letters he has got, so I sent one to Charlotte today, by private opportunity, to be mailed there for Rich.d — If you have […] your home, […] I suppose you see if your letters will have better luck. His address now is: Capt: (T. G. B.) A.-A.-Gen.l Hampton’s Brigade — Father’s trip to town did [not?] do him any harm. — It was so hot in Col.a he only stood one night. He got a very nice buggy from Pendleton, & took Mother a long drive to [Little River] last week. — He went yesterday to visit Mr. [Sharpe’s] place. He was invited to dine, & take tea, & came down with Capt: [Sharpe], who was to join his Company, not far from here. They came in Capt: [Sharpe’s] carriage, & did not get here till 12 o’clock at night, having started after dark. [Mrs.] ~~Hayne~~ Miss Hayne — half-sister of Dr. A. P. Hayne — Father is delighted with her. He still talks about buying, & makes offers, & rides about examining the resources of the country generally, but nothing positive [has] […] yet. He is now taking Peruvian Syrup, by Uncle Sanford’s advice. Uncle got down to town the day Father left, & did not see him. — Kate is lying on the bed reading “Pickwick,” & laughing at Sam Weller. She scribbled something on a piece of brown paper today, & handed it to me crying, that was the way she was going to begin her letter to Lila Stoney — but whether the letter will be ready to go in this or not, is matter [illegible]

A few partially-legible lines at the bottom edge:

[…] cast over the horses, by thy […]

[…] old. She was very interesting of […]. She was only sick. [I] […]

[…] the Bottom curtains, into shirts of […]

[…] Almost every day one or more no[…]

[…] — Walhalla has been very hi[…]

AI Notes

Continuation of the torn letter from the previous scan, in the same hand and faded blue ink. Larger central portion of the sheet preserved than the previous scan, but the upper-right corner, the lower-left corner, and the right edge are torn away. The writer reports on family news: not receiving letters from home; correspondence with Tody (forwarded via Charlotte to Richmond); the address of Tody’s unit (A.A.G. on Hampton’s Brigade staff, then forming at Columbia, S.C.); Father’s trip to town; a carriage visit by Capt. Sharpe and Miss Hayne (half-sister of Dr. A. P. Hayne); Father taking Peruvian Syrup on Uncle Sanford’s advice; Kate reading Dickens’s ‘Pickwick’ and laughing at Sam Weller; Kate’s attempt to begin a letter to Lila Stoney. Several lines at the bottom edge are torn away or only partially legible; the closing visible line mentions Walhalla, S.C.

Letter continues; bottom and right edges of the sheet are torn or otherwise illegible. Walhalla, S.C., as on the previous page, is the locale.

The “Capt: (T. G. B.)” whose forwarding address is given is Theodore Gaillard Barker (1832–1917), the family’s “Tody,” serving as Assistant Adjutant-General on Wade Hampton III’s brigade staff — formed in summer 1862 around the cavalry component of Hampton’s Legion at Columbia, S.C. Kate’s reading of Pickwick and laughter at Sam Weller — Dickens’s cockney bootblack-turned-valet, introduced in The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) — is a small reminder that the household kept up with mid-Victorian English popular fiction even while refugeeing in the Blue Ridge.