Legation of the United
States, Vienna,
August 26, 1862.
My Darling Little
Mary: I am writing to you a mere apology for a letter. I wrote a letter
to your dear grandmama by the last steamer, and, I believe, to you, but I am
not sure. I am writing at my office in town, where I have the newspapers up to
the 12th of August, which your mother and Lily have not yet seen. Here I have
just read in them the details of the late fight in Virginia, in which the
Massachusetts Second seems to have so much distinguished itself, and to have
suffered so severely. I see with great regret that my old friend and classmate
Dr. Shurtleff has lost a son in the fight. The details are still meager, but I
have seen enough to feel sure that our men behaved brilliantly, and I can have
no doubt of our ultimate success. I have just seen Hayward, whom I dare say you
have seen in Hertford Street. He had had a long talk with M. Duvergier
d'Hauranne, one of Louis Philippe's old ministers, which gentleman had just
heard the whole story of the Richmond battles from the French princes. They
described them exactly according to the accounts of the Northern newspapers,
which they pronounced perfectly accurate, said that nothing could exceed the
courage displayed on both sides, and that the movement to James River had been
managed in such a very masterly manner by McClellan. All this I had no doubt
of, but I like to hear what outsiders say to each other. Hayward also read me a
note from Lord March, Governor-General of Canada, who says that English
officers present at the late battles, and since returned to Canada, pronounce
the accounts given in the Northern papers as perfectly accurate.
I have not a word to say of news. We dribble on in the even
tenor of our Vรถslau
ways. Hayward is coming out to dine to-morrow,1 and Saturday or
Sunday we expect a visit of a few days from Mr. and Mrs. Hughes (Tom Brown) and
Miss Stanley (Arthur Stanley's sister). We hope to have some comfort in talking
with them, as Hughes is as stanch a friend to our cause as exists in Europe. Of
course we never talk or think of anything else night or day.
Good-by, and God bless you, my darling. I promise to write
again next week.
Your affectionate
Papa.
_______________
1 From Mr. Hayward's “Letters,” ii. 82: “I also passed a day
with the Motleys at their villa, and found him more unreasonable than
ever, vowing that the restoration of the Union in its entirety was as sure
as the sun in heaven.”
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 265-7
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