Lucy Webb Hayes to Lieut. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, August 2, 1862

Chillicothe, August 2 [1862]

The 24th of July a year ago was a happy, and yet, oh, sad night, and yet the thought that I was with you to the last moment of that sad parting sends such a thrill of joy through my heart. I think of it so often. ’Twas bitter to know that when morning dawned, instead of joy and happiness, ’twould bring such heavy sorrow, such bitter tears. We stood and gazed after the cars holding all that was dearest to us, but I was a soldier's wife, I must not cry yet. While standing there, an old woman spoke to Mother, asking who was gone; then she turned to me, “You had better take a good cry, my dear, ’twill lighten your heart.” How freshly everything comes before me now!

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 322