Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Sarah Hildreth Butler to Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler, April 27, 1861

LoweLL, April (27), 1861

DEAREST: We are still in doubt where you are, but think you must be in Washington by this. Mr. Kimball told me today a letter came from his father yesterday saying you would go to Washington directly. And Mrs. Kimball said, from the Dr., that you’re astonishing everybody by your executive ability.

I wrote a note and sent it by Harriet, but feel no certainty you will get it. She has gone with Mr. Read, for Blanche. But whether they will get through we cannot tell. There has been great fear that Washington would be attacked and defeated before our troops arrived. That accounts for our sending for Blanche. I don’t know but you will think it premature. I shall send this by Dr. Kimball if he goes in a day or two. And now how do you like this life? Will the glorious excitement more than balance the labour and anxiety? I hope so. One who strives as you do ought to meet his reward somewhere. I do not much like these last lines but I must leave them. The fact is I am so down I could cry outright sometimes, but that I must bestir myself for others. Jackson must be of infinite service to you in every way. I am so glad he is with you now. To think of you there alone would be intolerable. Monday, got your telegram. Feel more easy. Tuesday, your short letter came. I shall send this by the same person who brought yours. I should like to go if it would answer, and you are to be there any time. Gilman is crazy to start; he would enlist if he thought you would not send for him. Brady is starting a company to be called the Butler Rifle Guards. Everybody is wild with excitement. The ladies are making soldiers’ shirts and rolling up bandages. I would gladly go to you if you would not find me an incumbrance.

Always yours,
SARAH

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 51-2

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