Sunday, October 12, 2014

Charles Russell Lowell to James Lowell, April 29, 1861

Washington, April 29, '61.

I have just got the promise from Cameron of a 2d Lieutenancy — don't yet know in what branch. Hope to get into the Flying Artillery or Artillery of some sort.

I have had no letters from home for seventeen days and do not know how Mother feels. I am sure that she will agree with me that, come what may, the army must hereafter be a more important power in the State than hitherto —and if Southern gentlemen enlist, Northern gentlemen must also. I send her and Father my best love. Am living here in her two flannel shirts and six collars — and Grandmother's neck-cloth — no trunk, Mother's bag.

I need not tell her that I am not in the least bloodthirsty — and not nearly so hopeful about the good results of this war as our Massachusetts Volunteers — but I believe that it will do us all much real good in the end.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 204

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