Letter from Walhalla, July 7th 1862, page 1
Book 1, Page 105 ·1862
Transcription
A handwritten letter, page 1 of multiple, in dark brown ink on a single sheet. A block of small cursive runs upside-down across the top edge of the sheet (cross-writing from another page turned 180° to fill blank space). The body of the present page begins immediately below the date line.
[A block of text written upside-down across the top margin — cross-writing from another page. Largely [illegible] in this orientation.]
Walhalla July 7th 1862
dear Sis,
Although I am sure you will have heard it, I will mention that we got Telegrams from Toby of 27, 28th later, & a Richmond despatch of 28th containing the accounts of the Battle up to that time — By the time the news got to us here it is so old that it seems useless to send it to you — Since the 28th we have no further news from Toby. The mail comes tonight & if any thing comes from him I will copy it. The Telegrams are “Safe & well” 27th — “Safe & well — glorious news” 28th — There has been literally nothing to tell you about, since Mother wrote, or one of us would have written before. If you could spend a week here you would realize what value letters are to us. I have never been in a place anything like it before & I constantly imagine what our feelings will be when we get into the old leaky omnibus with a hole in the top, shaky boards under your feet, & two or three whole glasses out of the number that should be there. I mean how happy we will be in contrast to our feeling the night we got here. But I really feel very thankful for being here in a great many respects, & if it were not for the awful anxieties of the times the mail arrangements would not seem so hard to bear patiently. Now & then some one coming direct from Charleston, & more often from Columbia, brings a paper only, a day old, & it is handed round the hotels & sometimes part of the village as a treasure — Your letter & those from Greenville come in these days generally. Do put in every little scrap that you can about the children — like Christie we all would be too glad to come to your nice country but it is so far I am afraid we cant get there. Tell him he must try & remember how we look, I wish I had him here now. This thin ink is bad too — Mother is sewing out in the piazza — Kate has gone
AI Notes
Page 1 of a multi-page handwritten letter dated ‘Walhalla July 7th 1862,’ addressed to a sister (‘dear Sis’). Written in dark ink in a small, dense cursive hand. Across the top of the sheet, a block of text from another page runs upside-down (cross-writing to save paper) and is largely illegible in this orientation. The body acknowledges receipt of telegrams from Toby of the 27th and 28th (‘Safe & well’ / ‘Safe & well — glorious news’) and a Richmond despatch of the 28th containing accounts of the Battle. The writer describes the dullness of Walhalla, the longed-for old leaky omnibus that brings news, papers a day old being handed around the hotels and village as a treasure, news travelling in via the uncle and others from Greenville, and the writer’s longing for the children (especially Christie). Mother is sewing on the piazza; Kate has gone out. Letter continues onto page 106.
Letter continues on next page.
Dated one week after the Seven Days Battles (25 June – 1 July 1862), in which Robert E. Lee drove George B. McClellan’s Union army back from the gates of Richmond at appalling cost on both sides. “Toby” is Theodore Gaillard Barker, then on Hampton’s Legion staff; the telegrams of 27–28 June were sent during the battles. The Walhalla refugee dateline places the family at their wartime Oconee County retreat.