Sunday, June 21, 2015

John M. Forbes to Sarah Hathaway Forbes, March 6, 1862 – 4 p.m.

Four P. M. Thursday, March 6, 1862.

I left you day before yesterday, well posted up to that time. We had just begun to feel comfortable when another gale sprang up, worse than the first and right ahead, — lasting all day yesterday and up to this morning, when it was again smooth and sunny; but we had lost our chance of reaching Port Royal in time for high tide on the bar. At noon we passed Fort Sumter and Charleston spires in the distance, and were boarded by one of the blockaders for news. It is now blowing half a gale again, and we have got to lie off the bar all night, and until noon tomorrow, making a four days' passage. Yesterday I had nothing to tell except of headache, etc., which made me too miserable to read or write. Today I am about well again, under the more genial air, though still coughing.

We expect to be boarded in about an hour by the pilot-boat, which will take the mail ashore, and I make up my package for the chance of its finding a vessel ready there to go homeward. I should go ashore myself, but that I should there be all adrift, and might be exposed to catching cold; so with my usual prudence I hold on. . . .

To-morrow night I hope to see Will; and now with lots of love to the children and to all who love me, I am as ever,

Yours,
J. M. F.

P. S. — Tell Mack, Billy looks all right after his adventures, though rather sleepy! Whist, too, is bright. Mr. Heard, as I see more of him, seems very feeble. I hope the yacht will get down, so that I may make him comfortable. This rough weather looks rather formidable for her, but she may hit upon a smooth time.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 298-9

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