Winchester, September 24, 1864.
My Dear Sir, —
It is with the greatest relief and pleasure that I think how soon you are
likely to have your son, the General, with you again, bringing home fresh
laurels, with which he might well be content, if it were for ambitious ends
that he entered the service of the country. But we know that he will be
satisfied with nothing short of doing his utmost for the nation; and that he
has surely done; at least, I cannot conceive that he should be fit for service
for many months to come.
Few outside of his immediate family can rejoice more at his
safe return than I do, little as I can hope to see of him. I feel that this is
a better world while my former colonel is in it.
I beg that you will express to Mrs. Bartlett the sympathy
which Mrs. Winsor and I feel for you in your great happiness; though its
expression is somewhat tardy, its existence is real.
Very truly and
respectfully yours,
Frederick Winsor.
SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William
Francis Bartlett, p. 143
