Camp Tompkins, Virginia, October 29, 1861.
Tuesday morning after
breakfast.
My Dear Boy: —
If I am not interrupted I mean to write you a long birthday letter. You will be
eight years old on the 4th of November — next Monday, and perhaps this letter
will get to Cincinnati in time for your mother or grandmother to read it to you
on that day.
If I were with you on your birthday I would tell you a great
many stories about the war. Some of them would make you almost cry and some
would make you laugh. I often think how Ruddy and Webby and you will gather
around me to listen to my stories, and how often I shall have to tell them, and
how they will grow bigger and bigger, as I get older and as the boys grow up, until
if I should live to be an old man they will become really romantic and
interesting. But it is always hard work for me to write, and I can't tell on
paper such good stories as I could give you, if we were sitting down together
by the fire.
I will tell you why we call our camp Camp Tompkins. It is
named after a very wealthy gentleman named Colonel Tompkins, who owns the farm
on which our tents are pitched. He was educated to be a soldier of the United
States at West Point, where boys and young men are trained to be officers at
the expense of the Government. He was a good student and when he grew up he was
a good man. He married a young lady, who lived in Richmond and who owned a
great many slaves and a great deal of land in Virginia. He stayed in the army
as an officer a number of years, but getting tired of army life, he resigned
his office several years ago, and came here and built an elegant house and
cleared and improved several hundred acres of land. The site of his house is a
lovely one. It is about a hundred yards from my tent on an elevation that
commands a view of Gauley Bridge, two and a half miles distant — the place
where New River and Gauley River unite to form the Kanawha River. Your mother
can show you the spot on the map. There are high hills or mountains on both
sides of both rivers, and before they unite they are very rapid and run roaring
and dashing along in a very romantic way. When the camp is still at night, as I
lie in bed, I can hear the noise like another Niagara Falls.
In this pleasant place Colonel Tompkins lived a happy life.
He had a daughter and three sons. He had a teacher for his daughter and another
for his boys. His house was furnished in good taste; he had books, pictures,
boats, horses, guns, and dogs. His daughter was about sixteen, his oldest boy
was fourteen, the next twelve, and the youngest about nine. They lived here in
a most agreeable way until the Rebels in South Carolina attacked Major Anderson
in Fort Sumter. Colonel Tompkins wished to stand by the Union, but his wife and
many relatives in eastern Virginia were Secessionists. He owned a great deal of
property which he feared the Rebels would take away from him if he did not
become a Secessionist. While he was doubting what to do and hoping that he
could live along without taking either side, Governor Wise with an army came
here on his way to attack steamboats and towns on the Ohio River. Governor Wise
urged Colonel Tompkins to join the Rebels; told him as he was an educated
military man he would give him the command of a regiment in the Rebel army.
Colonel Tompkins finally yielded and became a colonel in Wise's army. He made
Wise agree that his regiment should be raised among his neighbors and that they
should not be called on to leave their homes for any distant service, but
remain as a sort of home guards. This was all very well for a while. Colonel
Tompkins stayed at home and would drill his men once or twice a week. But when
Governor Wise got down to the Ohio River and began to drive away Union men, and
to threaten to attack Ohio, General Cox was sent with Ohio soldiers after
Governor Wise.
Governor Wise was not a good general or did not have good
soldiers, or perhaps they knew they were fighting in a bad cause. At any rate,
the Rebel army was driven by General Cox from one place to another until they
got back to Gauley Bridge near where Colonel Tompkins lived. He had to call out
his regiment of home guards and join Wise. General Cox soon drove them away
from Gauley Bridge and followed them up this road until he reached Colonel
Tompkins' farm. The colonel then was forced to leave his home, and has never
dared to come back to it since. Our soldiers have held the country all around
his house.
His wife and children remained at home until since I came
here. They were protected by our army and no injury done to them. But Mrs.
Tompkins got very tired of living with soldiers all around, and her husband off
in the Rebel army. Finally a week or two ago General Rosecrans told her she
might go to eastern Virginia, and sent her in her carriage with an escort of
ten dragoons and a flag of truce over to the Rebel army about thirty miles from
here, and I suppose she is now with her husband.
I suppose you would like to know about a flag of truce. It
is a white flag carried to let the enemy's army know that you are coming, not
to fight, but to hold a peaceful meeting with them. One man rides ahead of the
rest about fifty yards, carrying a white flag — any white handkerchief will do.
When the pickets, sentinels, or scouts of the other army see it, they know what
it means. They call out to the man who carries the flag of truce and he tells
them what his party is coming for. The picket tells him to halt, while he sends
back to his camp to know what to do. An officer and a party of men are sent to
meet the party with the flag of truce, and they talk with each other and
transact their business as if they were friends, and when they are done they
return to their own armies. No good soldier ever shoots a man with a flag of
truce. They are always very polite to each other when parties meet with such a
flag.
Well, Mrs. Tompkins and our men travelled till they came to
the enemy. The Rebels were very polite to our men. Our men stayed all night at
a picket station in the woods along with a party of Rebels who came out to meet
them. They talked to each other about the war, and were very friendly. Our men
cooked their suppers as usual. One funny fellow said to a Rebel soldier, “Do
you get any such good coffee as this over there?” The Rebel said, “Well, to
tell the truth, the officers are the only ones who see much coffee, and it's
mighty scarce with them.” Our man held up a big army cracker. “Do you have any
like this?” and the Rebel said, “Well no, we do live pretty hard,” — and so
they joked with each other a great deal.
Colonel Tompkins' boys and the servants and tutor are still
in the house. The boys come over every day to bring the general milk and pies
and so on. I expect we shall send them off one of these days and take the house
for a hospital or something of the kind.
And so you see Colonel Tompkins didn't gain anything by
joining the Rebels. If he had done what he thought was right, everybody would
have respected him. Now the Rebels suspect him, and accuse him of treachery if
anything occurs in his regiment which they don't like. Perhaps he would have
lost property, perhaps he would have lost his life if he had stood by the
Union, but he would have done right and all good people would have honored him.
And now, my son, as you are getting to be a large boy, I
want you to resolve always to do what you know is right. No matter what you
will lose by it, no matter what danger there is, always do right.
I hope you will go to school and study hard, and take
exercise too, so as to grow and be strong, and if there is a war you can be a
soldier and fight for your country as Washington did. Be kind to your brothers
and to Grandmother, and above all to your mother. You don't know how your
mother loves you, and you must show that you love her by always being a kind,
truthful, brave boy; and I shall always be so proud of you.
Give my love to all the boys, and to Mother and Grandmother.
Affectionately, your
father,
R. B. Hayes.
Birchaed A. Hayes,
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 128-32
