Camp Kearnstown Nov 17, 1861

Submitted by Chris on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 18:17.

Camp Kearnstown Nov 17, 1861

My Dear Annie,

I neglected answering you last letter because I hoped to see you before a letter could reach you but I have almost despaired of getting off at all. If I am not home in the course of three or four days, I shall give up the idea of getting home during the war. The first requirement is to dispose of stock, negroes and anything else you think best as soon as possible and prepare to come and see me while we are camped near Winchester. I can get boarding for you. I saw your papa in Winchester yesterday only for a few minutes only. I had leave to go up with him. My permission to go home has to go through the commissary general for approval and he is at Manassas or Richmond. I have sent in the request but do not expect much from it. So you can make arrangements to come and see me.

I think you had better sell the hogs for cash instead of having them butchered unless you expect to stay there and keep house by yourself. Pork is worth 7 or 8 cents per pound gross that is alive. Luther says they are fine and weigh three hundred pounds each. If you kill them it will take a bushel of salt nearly to cure them and I suppose from all acct you could hardly get salt at all - at any rate would have to pay several times its value for it is all this rascally speculator that makes salt so high for I am furnished with salt for the army at 75 cents per bushel. You can see where some of the rascality is. I have heard that Mr. Hardesty asks $20 a sack for his which is about five dollars a bushel. I think it will take something more than salt to save them from Hell. All such men shall be treated as alien enemies. They will prove a curse to our new country, for the majority of the fighting men in the Southern Army cannot support their families or hardly clothe themselves at present prices and all brought about by the speculators.

It takes one month wages as a private for a pair of boots which is an almost indispensable article of clothing at this time of year. I furnish the Officers of this reg. with provisions at the following rate of flour 3 cents per pound, beef stake (very fine) 6 cents per pound, Bacon 20, Coffee 25, Sugar (very nice) 6 cents per bushel, candles adamantine 25 cents per pound, rice 35 cents per pound. You can see how some men are oppressing the poor and especially the families of the poor privates who sleep on the ground with one blanket to cover them or do not have .........they may be call on to face the cannon and pour out his blood in defense of the infernal land shark at home. A terrible retribution awaits their sins.

My own position in the army is an enviable one but I know what it is to be a private in the service, in other words an humble soldier which means a good deal more than anyone knows of that never has occupied the front lines. I am prouder of the three months I served as a common soldier than any other service I ever performed or ever expect to perform in that length of time or during the balance of my life.

I regards to our own domestic affairs I hardly know what to advise-if we could sell our furniture and rent the houses I would approve of doing so for the reason that I do not expect to leave the army while the war lasts and if anyone knows when that will be he is wiser than anyone I have seen. So we will have to remove our property next spring or rent the house simply to for the purpose of keeping them unless or course you prefer or intend to keep house by yourself. I fear you could not get much for our things just now, towards spring we may be able to dispose of them to better advantage. I do not know as I shall never live in Harrisonburg again for any length of time and most likely I shall never practice dentistry again, at any rate till I try something else. If I can get home this week we could devise some plan to dispose of some of our matters (Domestic).

I suspended writing an hour since to roast a nice piece of beef after my own fashion and you know what I mean when I say roast beef. I surprised Luther and all the mess by a roast of beef some weeks. Luther declared in the start he did not like roast beef but after I roasted it and he tasted he could hardly git enough. I have nothing to roast beef in but a shallow skillet with a lid to it. If I had a deep oven I could do much better.

I supposed you would be surprised to see Luther instead of me after what I had written but his sickness and our removal to the Valley changed the nature of things very much and again I am a more important person in the army than he is and the sick plea was the only thing that took him home. Military authority is arbitrary in the extreme and we must learn to put up with it. There are a good many going home on one plea and another - some with permission and some without.

Nannie I love you devotedly and can this moment sacrifice anything in reason to see you but, by my honor, I never realized fully till since I left you how much I love you - I thought of a good many harsh words I have given you in moments of ill humor though not one of them with intent or forethought from the heart for that has always been true and warm for you and must ever be while life last. I have been punished for every unkind word given you and I think I never gave you any that I did not resolve should be the last, my absentmindedness has given you many an unkind word that I entirely was unaware of till you called my attention to it. I have no words to express my desire to see my Dear Nannie and Dear boy. And I hope for something to turn up soon that I will satisfy my longings, but until I secure permission required I will not go home-some would have gone home on the paper I had secured yesterday but they are absent without leave and liable to be reported so.

So that you may better understand the nature of getting furloughs and permission to leave, I will give you an exact copy of mine as I left it last evening at the Adjutant Generals office

Camp Kearnstown Nov 16, 1861

I respectfully ask permission to go to Harrisonburg Va to execute the bond and obtain the sureties required of First Commissaries to return on the 20th

A. Martin Capt. & A.C.S.

33rd Reg Va. Vol.

Approved

A.C. Cummings

Col Comdg 33rd Reg Va Vol.

On the back was approved

James F. Reston Col.

Acting Brigadier General

Now I have the recommendation of the Chief Commissary of the army but as I have the approval of Maj. Gen T. J. Jackson. Dear Nannie it looks like a hopeless case so do not be too disappointed for we are better off than thousands that are in the army. Their pay will not permit them to bring their families or are so far away that it is impossible. While I am no better now than when I was a private yet you will be more respected among strangers as the wife of a commissioned officer than you would as the wife of a private so I cannot go and see you. You can now come and see me if we remain in Winchester or vicinity.

Col. Gibbons took tea with you, did he. Well I have no objections. I presume he found it more convenient to do that then to walk a hundred yards to see me while I was in the rank, but I have not walked one yard to see him since we came into service and have no idea of doing so either if we stay ten years.

I have gotten the trunk at last and found two nice flannel shirts 3 pair flannel drawers 3 pairs socks 2 pairs cotton drawers and nice pillow, one silk handkerchief boots comfort and several other acceptable things among which are yours and Robby likenesses. It does me good to look at your face once more and little Robby so innocent and sweet. i have wanted those for a long time. The comfort is very good but almost too short. A big one would not have been too much this winter. I think Dear if you could see me some of these cold stormy nights you would not refuse me one of your large comforts. Night before last was the first night since the eighth of July that I have laid my head on a mattress and it felt comfortable. The little pillow is appreciated and everything else you have given me.

If I do not get home you will have to do the best you can with hogs and other things. I will send you a check for one hundred dollars - you will sell the hogs for cash. They ought to bring you between forty and fifty dollars if they are as good as Luther represents them. I do not know what to do with the cow. If Mr. Kingster does not come with Militia I will see what arrangements I can make with him.

I do not know as I shall need the shirts. I have only worn the other calico once, sent it out to wash last week but it has not returned yet and may never. I put on the calico you sent me and I presume it is the first, real clean shirt I have had on for three months or four. I may need another if we stay in Winchester this winter. I can afford to wear a white shirt sometimes. Since writing I was very surprised by the appearance of a fine looking young man in Military dress that I soon found to be Hugh. .............. and inquired for Dr. Martin. I was standing on one side of a ...... he on the other. He expressed great surprise at finding me looking so rusty. He came out from Winchester at dark and walked out at that. He has to return to Winchester by seven o'clock to take the train for Charlestown. He is the finest looking army man I have seen for some time. I was very glad to see him. He is now calling on the Mt. Jackson boys and Luther is fixing him a bed so he may take a nap. I think he fares pretty well, he told me that Mr. Yates had sent him a ham and pickles yesterday. Hugh left us this morning about five o'clock, he is in fine spirits.

I will write again in a few days, if I do not get home. Write soon and direct to Winchester, I enclose the Postage Stamps. From your Affectionate Husband.

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