Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, July 26, 1861

WASHINGTON, July 26, 1861.

I can imagine you to have very many inconveniences to put up with as you are now placed, but you must remember it is only for a season, that better times are in store for us, and that above all we now are at war and suffering all its horrors. Contrast your and your children's condition with that of those who are upon or near the battlefields or on the line of march of the armies or near their various encampments. You read of these things in the newspapers and your blood thrills with horror, but the reading is nothing to witnessing with your own senses the present results of this sickening fratricidal strife. The scenes I will not pretend to write about are continually before my eyes and I continually thank God that you and the children are in what I consider a place of refuge.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 172

No comments: