Closing leaf of the Walhalla letter to William, signed E B — 'God protect you all from these wicked people'

Final leaf of the multi-page handwritten Walhalla letter that began on page 101 and continued through 102 and 103. Only the top quarter of the sheet bears writing; the rest is blank apart from horizontal fold creases. The closing reads as a continuation from the previous scan (‘letters to night — God protect you all from these wicked people’), is signed ‘yrs affec[tionate]ly E B’ at the right, and bears a postscript instructing that the letter be forwarded to Thomas — who is in turn to open it at the recipient’s uncle’s care, in case the recipient is absent. The ‘E B’ initials and the maternal voice (writing to a son ‘William’ from refugee Walhalla, with anxious references to wicked invaders threatening home) align with Ellen Milliken Barker, matriarch of the Barker family (b. 1807, d. 10 Jun 1874), writing during the Confederate-Charleston/Walhalla refugee period (1861–1865).

The “E B” signature and maternal anxiety about “wicked people” threatening home, written from the family’s refugee post at Walhalla, S.C., point to Ellen Milliken Barker writing to her son William during the Civil War (Confederate refugee period 1861–1865; cf. the same writer’s enhanced pages 062/064/101/102/103/110/114).