Sunday, August 24, 2014

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, November 27, 1864

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES Of ThE UNITED STATES,
Nov. 27, 1864.
My Dear Wife:

My last was dated from headquarters at camp. I am now sojourning for a day or two in the city of Washington, arranging my business with some of the departments. I shall head towards the West before long, and have the pleasure of greeting you all on my way to the field. It is a good while, weeks, since I have had a line or intimation of any kind from home, but I steel my heart to anything approaching anxiety, maintain a firm faith that Providence will order all things as is best for us all and bide with confidence his decree. My health is better a good deal than when I left home, and though from time to time I am caught up by the old trouble, I think, on the whole, I am steadily on the mend. There is no doubt as to the chronic nature of the disease that will remain with me during the rest of my life, but some years of usefulness may yet be spared me. My visit to the headquarters of General Grant was very agreeable and of very considerable advantage to me.

I have no lack of courtesy wherever I go, and here in Washington feel compelled to lie perdu and preserve a strict incognito, lest I suffer from the kindness of my friends.

I enclose a rosebud gathered on the banks of the James, in the close vicinity of the contending armies; it was literally the last rose of the summer then, for that night a heavy frost fell, and my plucking saved it from a black death; it still maintains its hues, though I have carried it in my pocket for a week, and I hope will not be quite withered ere it reach your hand.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 370-1

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