Typed letter (continuation) signed Ellen, and start of new letter from White Hall, January 20, 1861
Book 1, Page 269 ·1861–1861
Transcription
(Typed transcript, single column, on aged paper. The page begins mid-sentence continuing from the previous scan, ends one letter with a closing signed “Ellen,” then begins a new letter after a row of dashes.)
Top of page (continuation of preceding letter)
epithet. Annette seemed as much excited as the children. Theo calls me “Lellin” and Sea seems to think I am Mama pro-tem. The children have traps of all sorts set in all directions, and the birds make daily the most hair-breadth escapes of being caught, but as yet there is nothing but the pleasure of hope in the lar- der. I do not get at all reconciled to being a soldier’s wife and heartily wish the fuss was over, but as that is a very matter of course with everybody it need scarcely be said at all. I fix- ed the children’s clothes and counted them all. There is plenty and to spare of everything except Thoe’s stockings, and I only see two pairs of them, one on and one in the trunk so I suppose they were overlooked. You must get someone to write a letter to Christie on his birthday for he is quite concerned that Sam has had two letters and he only one, besides the note to both of them from Mother. They think a great deal of their letters and constantly mean to answer them. I did not find any work in the children’s trunk, why did you not send it!
Love to all at home and the Kings when you see them,
Yours, Ellen.
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Lower section (start of new letter)
White Hall, Jan. 20, 1861.
Dear Sis:
The children are all well, that is the best news I can give so I put it first. They seem to grow fatter and rosier every day and are as merry as the day is long. Christie has been devoted to his mama since she came at which she is charmed of course. For a day or two he seemed to dislike being out of
AI Notes
A typed transcript on aged paper containing the conclusion of the Jan. 13, 1861 letter signed ‘Ellen’ and, after a row of dashes, the opening of a new letter dated ‘White Hall, Jan. 20, 1861’ addressed ‘Dear Sis.’ Includes the striking line ‘I do not get at all reconciled to being a soldier’s wife and heartily wish the fuss was over’ — written by Aunt Ellen Porcher from White Hall, three months before Fort Sumter; her husband Thomas Porcher was already mobilized in the SC militia. ‘Sea seems to think I am Mama’ — the ‘pro-tem’ mother is to the youngest two Porcher children Theo and Sea. ‘Thoe’s stockings’ is a typist transposition of Theo’s — Ellen is sorting through her FitzSimons nephew Theo’s clothes.
Letter continues on the next scan.
“I do not get at all reconciled to being a soldier’s wife and heartily wish the fuss was over” is written from White Hall on 20 January 1861 — one month after South Carolina seceded but still three months before Fort Sumter. Thomas Porcher had already been mobilized in the SC militia in advance of the war. The line is one of the album’s most piercing pre-war notes.