January 17th.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from my esposita
four days after it was written. Doesn't it look as if Confederate mails are
better than United States mails? Don't you remember how long it took for
letters to come from Charlotte to Lexington under the old regime? I
derive an additional pleasure in reading a letter from the conviction that it
has not travelled on the Sabbath. How delightful will be our heavenly home,
where everything is sanctified! . . . I
am gratified at hearing that you have commenced disciplining the baby. Now be
careful, and don't let her conquer you. She must not be permitted to
have that will of her own, of which you speak. How I would love to see the
little darling, whom I love so tenderly, though I have never seen her; and if
the war were only over, I tell you, I would hurry down to North Carolina to see
my wife and baby. I have much work to do. Lieutenant-Colonel Faulkner is of
great service to me in making out my reports. Since he is my senior adjutant-general,
Pendleton is promoted to a majority, and is the junior adjutant-general. Major
Bier, my chief of ordnance, has been ordered to Charleston, and Captain William
Allan, of Winchester, is his successor. Colonel Smeade is my inspector-general,
so you must not complain of my not writing to you about my staff. I regret to
see our Winchester friends again in the hands of the enemy. I trust that, in
answer to prayer, our country will soon be blessed with peace. If we were only
that obedient people that we should be, I would, with increased confidence,
look for a speedy termination of hostilities. Let us pray more and live more to
the glory of God. . . . I am still
thinking and thinking about that baby, and do want to see her. Can't you send
her to me by express? There is an express line all the way to Guiney's. I am
glad to hear that she sleeps well at night, and doesn't disturb her mother. But
it would be better not to call her a cherub; no earthly being is such. I
am also gratified that Hetty is doing well. Remember me to her, and tell her
that, as I didn't give her a present last Christmas, I intend giving her two
next. . . . Don't you accuse my baby of
not being brave. I do hope she will get over her fear of strangers. If,
before strangers take her, you would give them something to please her, and
thus make her have pleasant associations with them, and seeing them frequently,
I trust she would lose her timidity. It is gratifying that she is growing so
well, and I am thankful she is so bright and knowing. I do wish I could see her
funny little ways, and hear her “squeal out with delight” at seeing the little
chickens. I am sometimes afraid that you will make such an idol of that baby
that God will take her from us. Are you not afraid of it? Kiss her for
her father.
I have this morning received two presents — a pair of
gauntlets from near the Potomac, and another beautiful pair from Mrs. Preston
Trotter, of Brownsburg. A kind gentleman, Mr. Stephens, of Nelson County, sent
me a barrel of select pippins.
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of
General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 413-4
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