Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, November 24, 1861

Washington, November 24, 1861.

I am now indebted to you for two letters, one of yesterday and one to-day; I am greatly indebted to you for them, and hope you will not fail to “keep up the fire.” I heard to-day the ablest discourse I think that I ever heard. I wish you could have heard it; it would have done your heart good. This evening I have been spending with Mr. Channing. He is a very pleasant man in private as well as in public. He has a full house of very intelligent auditors, and there is no flagging of interest among them.

I had a long letter from Captain Rodgers, of the United States steamer Wabash, giving an account of affairs at Port Royal. He is one of the most accomplished men I ever met, and is said to be the best executive officer in the navy. You remember what I always told you about Captain Du Pont. His success has answered my expectations. Captain Porter goes out shortly in command of an expedition against New Orleans.

Hale and Johnson are both gone, and I am “running the committee”1 alone.
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1 Committee to inquire into the abandonment and destruction of tbe public property at Pensacola, Norfolk, and Harper's Ferry.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 159

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