Cross-written letter, continuation (page 2)
Book 1, Page 92
Transcription
A handwritten letter, continuation page, on light blue lined paper. Brown ink in a sloping cursive. The upper half is cross-written with a perpendicular second layer; the lower half is single-direction horizontal text.
Horizontal pass (original orientation)
“& fatigue still affects [his?] utterance [illegible] letter have brought”
“Martha & [illegible] & [Hennie] Stevens & [illegible] & Mrs. [Vaughan]”
“Charleston again [illegible] one of his attacks &”
“[illegible] together [Vegetable] [illegible] in [illegible] of Mrs. [illegible]. [illegible] was [illegible]”
“the had taken. [illegible] is [well] again. [illegible] wrote that Mr. [illegible] was [illegible] in town to give you all the news of our friends from her. Miss [illegible] sent Nelly the Narrative of Mrs. Mason, servant of his Mason’s death & his fidelity. We must [illegible] & [illegible] [illegible] & if it produced thus many hearts are now a [illegible] consolation but will never quite to [illegible]. At the house where your father stayed last night one son was in [illegible] another somewhere on the coast — his Mother said they never could hear from [illegible] third. At home recovering from a flesh wound on the arm — The fourth had come home to die — & lay buried she said in that ‘fierce corner’ & to we meet the ‘race’ every where. Will copy what is [illegible] to you in the [illegible]. He is not in a [decision] on military”
Cross-writing (perpendicular layer)
[The upper portion of the sheet carries a second pass of writing perpendicular to the body — read with the page rotated 90° counter-clockwise. Partial recovery:]
Nell letters [illegible] sad tidings & anxiety [illegible] [from the South?] [illegible] Martha & [Janssen?] & Hennie Stevens & last night [illegible] of [Mott’s?] daughter [illegible] It makes me feel as I did not recall enough the [illegible]
Aug[ust]. Nell heard from [illegible] last — all well — had a little [Theo?]
Vickers was still very sick — but [illegible] not to naturally do he before
said at best it would be a tedious [illegible]
John Bratton’s wife is reported paralysed. His young child died last week [illegible]
AI Notes
Continuation page of a heavily cross-written letter in brown ink. The upper half carries both an original horizontal pass and a perpendicular cross-writing pass; the lower half is single-direction horizontal. The horizontal pass discusses Nelly receiving a ‘Narrative of Mrs. Mason’ (about a Mason’s death and his enslaved servant’s fidelity), grief among family connections, and a Charleston-region home where four sons had served — one wounded in the arm, one buried at a ‘fierce corner.’ The cross-writing pass — read with the page rotated counter-clockwise — adds August news from Nell, illness updates (a ‘tedious’ recovery, Vickers very sick), and word that John Bratton’s wife was ‘reported paralysed’ with their young child dying last week.
Many connecting words remain illegible where the two ink layers cross; bracketed words are best-effort readings of partially-obscured text. The cross-writing extends across the upper half of the sheet only; the lower half carries the single-direction horizontal pass.
Letter likely continues on next page.