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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