Commander Andrew H. Foote to Gideon Welles, April 6, 1861

Navy Yard     

New York April 6/61

Sir,

Your orders of the 5th were received by Captain Mercer to-day. Captain Meigs, Lieut. Porter and Captain Mercer after consultation, concluded that Lieut. Porter should go out in the Powhatan as the arrangements were vital to success, at least so I was informed, not being present at the consultation. A few minutes before the Powhatan sailed, I delivered a telegram to Captain Mercer, signed H. Berrian, saying that Paymaster Gulick will deliver a despatch to me this evening. But at 2½ o'clock the Powhatan sailed. At 3 o'clock, when the Powhatan was out of sight, I received a despatch directed to Lieut. Porter, from Mr. Seward, telling him to proceed without the Powhatan as directed in the despatch to Captain Meigs. I have sent to New York a Lieutenant with orders to charter a steamer and chase the Powhatan unless there is no hope of overtaking her. It is time to close the mail and I will write fully by next mail.

I have the honor, &c.

A. H. Foote    

for Commd^t

Captain Mercer leaves the Powhatan at Staten Island. I am informed that Captain Meigs has sailed this afternoon.

A. H. F.

SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright, Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 27-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, February 12, 1864

Incessant employment early and late has prevented me from making entries, and there has been little of public interest to engage me. On Monday evening I attended a party at Admiral Shubrick's which could not be avoided, and was detained later than I intended, but also went at 11 P.M. to Tassara's, the Spanish Minister. Both were very dull, the latter crowded.

Committees and resolutions of inquiry from Congress have flocked in upon the Department. Many of the latter were frivolous, and most of them for mischievous purposes. How little do the outside public know of the intrigues of Congressional demagogues, who, under the guise of great public economists, are engaged in speculating schemes and fraudulent contrivances to benefit themselves, pecuniarily! John P. Hale, who is eminently conspicuous in this class of professed servants and guardians of the public treasury, has been whitewashed for his three-thousand-dollar retainer. The committee excuse him, but propose a law which shall inflict ten thousand dollars' fine and two years' imprisonment on any one who shall again commit the offense.

Little of particular interest in the Cabinet-meeting. Seward left early, and Chase soon followed. I to-day wrote the latter, expressing pretty deliberately and effectually my opinion in regard to permits for cutting ship-timber in North Carolina. It may give offense, but I could do no less than in a mild form object to the favoritism and monopoly that the system engendered.

Blair, who, with Senator Doolittle, was at my house this evening, avers I am a fortunate man above others. He says my opponents are making me great, and that I am fortunate in the attacks and abuses that are bestowed, and repeats an aphorism of Colonel Benton, that "a man is made great by his enemies, and not by his friends." There is doubtless some truth in the remark, but not, I apprehend, as regards myself.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 521-2

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, July 22, 1863

Camp White, July 22, 1863.

Dearest: — Home again after an absence of two weeks, marching and hurrying all the time. The last week after Morgan has been the liveliest and jolliest campaign we ever had. We were at all the skirmishes and fighting after he reached Pomeroy. It was nothing but fun — no serious fighting at all. I think not over ten killed and forty wounded on our side in all of it. Unluckily McCook, father of Robert and the rest, was mortally wounded. This hurt me but all the rest was mere frolic. Morgan's men were only anxious to get away. There was no fight in them when attacked by us. You will no doubt see great claims on all sides as to the merits of his captors. The cavalry, gunboats, militia, and our infantry each claim the victory as their peculiar property. The truth is, all were essential parties to the success. The cavalry who pursued him so long deserve the lion's share. The gunboats and militia did their part. We can truly claim that Morgan would have crossed and escaped with his men at Pomeroy if we had not headed him there and defeated his attempt. It is not yet certain whether Morgan himself will be caught. But it is of small importance. His force which has so long been the terror of the border, and which has kept employed all our cavalry in Kentucky is now gone. Our victorious cavalry can now operate in the enemy's country.

I thought of you often. We were quartered on steamboats — men were singing, bands playing. Our band was back and with us, and such lively times as one rarely sees. Almost everybody got quantities of trophies. I got nothing but a spur and two volumes captured from the Twentieth Kentucky, Captain H. C. Breman, and now recaptured by us. Morgan's raid will always be remembered by our men as one of the happiest events of their lives.

Love to the dear boys and Grandmother. Joe is unwell and is in a room in town.

Affectionately,

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 421

Albon Chase* To CongressmanHowell Cobb, May 20, 1846

Athens [ga.], May 20, 1846.

Dear Sir: I have at length mustered sufficient resolution to commence a letter to you; but as through approaching age these tasks are becoming arduous, I know not how I shall get through it. Though for some time silent, I have not been unmindful of your favors, and most sincerely do I thank you for the letters you have written me; and I would be especially obliged, whenever any thing of interest occurs in Congress on a Thursday that you would let me know by that night's mail. It will enable me sometimes to gain a week in publishing news.

I perceive by your late letters to myself and others that you are in no very amiable humor with some of us for our want of zeal and interest in some things which you have much at heart. But you must recollect that while you are in a whirl of excitement, we are but lookers-on and keep quite cool. I am not disposed to argue any point connected with the Oregon or Texas controversy. I am ranked here as a 54° 40' man, though I do not hesitate to avow that I would yield much for the sake of peace. I would take 49 if England offered it, to avoid a greater evil than the failure to obtain possession of our territory north of that line. And in this I, at least, am not inconsistent with myself; for if while at peace, Mexico had entered into a negotiation relative to boundary, I would not insist upon the whole country east of the Rio Grande for the whole length of that river. I would have been gratified at a compromise with her even, for the sake of peace. But it is too late now, and it may ere long be too late in regard to Oregon.

You seem to think I have not defended you as I ought. I certainly have not condemned your course, and I have defended all the positions you have taken in Congress. This no other editor in Georgia has done. I really have no fault to find with any of your votes, though I think I should have given mine for the notice as it finally passed, when I found nothing better could be gotten. That I have not defended you, is simply because you have not been attacked so far as I have seen. I have no fancy for making a fuss when there is no occasion for it.

And now in reference to another subject. Hope Hull showed me your letter in reply to one from him, and he requests me to give some reasons for the course which I suppose he suggested. Your friends here have not thought it best to make any movement towards a nomination at present, for various reasons. The Whigs are making no public effort to get up opposition to you, but are evidently waiting to see if some disaffection may not be excited, with a view to take up any of our men who can get a little Democratic support and who will consent to be run by them. If we hold a convention they will secretly operate upon the selection of delegates; they will find agents to present other names besides yours before the convention; they will endeavor to get up some feeling, especially on the Oregon question (and a great many Democrats disagree with you there), and they will strain every nerve to induce one of the defeated candidates to run against you. By a convention we shall show where our disaffection is, if there is any. It will concentrate and give vitality to that disaffection and I fear produce unpleasant results hereafter. We have no doubt that you are the choice of the district and that you could be triumphantly nominated; but we think our permanent harmony would be best maintained by considering you the candidate of course, unless some movement adverse to this view should be made. If any county holds a meeting and suggests any other name, or calls for a convention, of course we must hold it; but I think if we can, we had better let every thing remain quiet. You need feel no delicacy on the subject, or any doubt as to your position. Any very small opposition to you, having the faintest hope of success, would make itself known. If such should appear, we will promptly call a convention to say who is our choice; but if none manifests itself, you should be flattered at the fact that while you are in the field your constituents are satisfied and no one disputes your claim.

Mr. Calhoun, I see, is getting farther and farther off. Who will go with him? Can you tell? I think I shall have to read him out before long. Please let me hear from you, and I will endeavor to be more punctual hereafter.

_______________

* Editor of the Southern Banner, Athens, Ga.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 77-8

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 24, 1863

A dispatch from Gen. Bragg, received today, three miles from Chattanooga, and dated yesterday, says the enemy occupies a strong position, and confronts him in great force, but he is sending troops round his flanks. No doubt he will cross the river as soon as possible. Only a small portion of Longstreet's corps has been engaged, so Bragg will have a fresh force to hurl against the invader. We learn to-day that Gen. Hood is not dead, and will recover.

The President sent over to the Secretary of War to-day some extracts from a letter he has just received from Mobile, stating that a large trade is going on with the enemy at New Orleans. A number of vessels, laden with cotton, had sailed from Pascagoula Bay, for that destination. Some one or two had been stopped by the people, as the traffic is expressly prohibited by an act of Congress. But upon inquiry it was ascertained that the trade was authorized by authority from Richmond — the War Department. I doubt whether Mr. Seddon authorized it. Who then? Perhaps it will be ascertained upon investigation.

Mr. Kean, the young Chief of the Bureau, is a most fastidious civil officer, for he rebukes older men than himself for mistaking an illegible K for an R, and puts his warning on record in pencil marks. Mr. K. came in with Mr. Randolph, but declined to follow his patron any further.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 51-2

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: November 14, 1864

The kaleidoscope has taken another turn. Six hundred taken away this forenoon; don't know where to. As I was about the last to come to Millen, my turn will not come for some days if only six hundred are taken out each day. Rebels say they go straight to our lines, but their being heavily guarded and every possible precaution taken to prevent their escape, it does not look like our lines to me. Probably go to Charleston; that seems to be the jumping off place. Charleston, for some reason or other, seems a bad place to go to. Any city familiar with the war I want to avoid. Shall hang back as long as I can, content to let well enough alone. Some of my friends, of which Bullock is one, flanked out with those going off. What I mean by “flanked out” is crowding in when it is not their turn and going with the crowd. Hendryx and I did that when we left Belle Isle, and we brought up in Andersonville. Will let those do the flanking who want to, I don't.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 116

Lieutenant-Colonel William T. Lusk to Elizabeth Adams Lusk, July 10, 1863

Headquarters Delaware Department,

Wilmington, Del., July 10th, 1863.

My dear Mother:

I know I ought to be thankful in my present pleasant position, but somehow or other I was not born to enjoy sinecures. Doing nothing makes me very fretful. I had a capital good time while on Maryland Heights, feeling well repaid for my trip thither, but after leaving, I have been bored to death with the ennui of city soldiering. To be sure we are feted, and take our places among the Princes of Delaware, still, my dear mother, it was not for this I left home, and I cannot, with all the idle time on my hands, avoid regretting the pleasant summer plans we had arranged in old Conn. It is six years since I have strolled about the streets of Norwich the whole summer long. Norwich was never more beautiful than now. So I suppose I feel disappointed at being so peacefully employed at the seat of war. Still here we are, General and Staff — persons of distinction — Ahem! I am on hand in case I am called for. I don't owe my position to Gov. Buckingham, and I expect to get home to my studies in the fall. Good things, all of them! Besides this, I am raising whiskers. I am reading Kinglake's “Crimea.” I have given up smoking. Think of that! You see, at first, when I found there was little to do, I smoked vigorously to pass away time. But when the cigar was smoked, there was an end to the amusement, so I then determined to break off smoking altogether, and, to make it exciting, I kept a handful of cigars in my pocket so that the temptation might be frequently incurred. Whenever I longed for a fragrant Havana, I would take one in fingers, and then sitting back in my chair, reason philosophically on the pernicious effects of tobacco. On reaching the point of conviction, I would return it to my pocket unlighted. This, you see, has afforded me a very excellent pastime.

Occasionally Bishop Lee's benignant face shines upon us. Everyone worships the Bishop here, and how he deserves it, you know well.

Am very sorry for Capt. Nichols. The opposition is a mistake. However I should as soon think of breaking my heart for a Bedlamite Hag, as for one who rejected me on the grounds of prudence. So perhaps Nichols is not so unlucky as he thinks himself. Now that I have practically abandoned military life, I have a fancy Gov. Buckingham made a mistake in persistently ignoring my claims to promotion. I fancy I would have done him more credit than some of his appointments. This may be vanity.

Written in haste with

affectionate intent,

W. T. Lusk.

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 285-7

Captain Charles Wright Wills: April 30, 1864

Scottsboro, Ala., April 30th, '64.

You know we have been under marching orders for several days. At dress parade this evening orders were read notifying us that the division would move out on the road to Chattanooga at 6 a. m., May 1st.

This is the first intimation of the direction we would take.

It surprises me very much, and I think many others. I was certain we would either cross the Tennessee river at Larkins Ferry or near Decatur and take Dalton in flank or rear, but Sherman didn't see it. I would rather do anything else save one, than march over the road to Chattanooga. That one is to lie still in camp.

When the boys broke ranks after the parade, cries of “mule soup” filled the camp for an hour. That is the name that has been unanimously voted to the conglomeration of dead mules and mud that fills the ditches on the roadside between Stevenson and Chattanooga.

The whole division has been alive all evening; burning cabins has been the fashion. Captains Post, Smith and myself got into a little discussion which ended in our grabbing axes and demolishing each other's cabins.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 230-1

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: September 1, 1864

Lay in camp all day. In evening relieved 3rd Jersey on picket. Busy most all night drawing oats.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 129

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: Friday, September 2, 1864

At daylight fell back. Left the main road. Passed through Kabletown and reached the fortified position 3 miles from C. On picket two miles toward B. Nicely settled down, when ordered to march. Reached B. about midnight. 5th N. Y. had skirmish with pickets.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 129

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: Saturday, September 3, 1864

Soon after daylight moved out. Passed through Millwood and White Post, two miles, and returned to M. and camped. Rained. Moseby has gathered up quite a number of our men within a few days.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 129

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: Sunday, September 4, 1864

Moved back by road. Rebs at Berryville and in our rear. 2nd Ohio train guard. Custer's brigade suffered some. Train moved to Rippon. Parked.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 129

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: Monday, September 5, 1864

Moved back to B. last night. Rained. Drivers and dead-beats got scared and pulled out very quickly before we moved. In line on left of infantry. Skirmishing soon after daylight. News of fall of Atlanta. All jubilant. Lay in camp till P. M. then went on picket. Rainy and very unpleasant. Boys suffered. Sat upon their horses and at the foot of trees all night.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 129

Senator Thomas Hart Benton to Colonel James Patton Preston, December 3, 1826

Washington City, Dec. 3rd, 1826.

Very Dear Sir:

I had the satisfaction to receive a few days before I left home, your kind & friendly letter of Sept. 17th and sincerely thank you for such a proof of your regard. It is now eleven years since our acquaintance & our friendship began, and I look to its commencement as an era in my life and one which is full of consolation in all the consequences which have flowed from it.

Placed upon an elevated theatre at this time, and acting some part there, it is a matter of course that I am to be a mark to one side or the other, and it is perfectly agreeable to me that all the abuse should flow from the side it does; in the mean time I go straight forward with my duties, and leave all this posse of hirelings to their own enjoyments.

The individuals in St. Louis, to whom you hint in your letter, had previously fixed my opinion, and without apparent alteration in my conduct, they are left in a condition to do no harm.

My election came on last week, and I have not the least doubt of the result.

My wife and children are in the finest possible health, and, as you will have understood, are now in Virginia. I expect to show them to you at your own house some vacant summer when I do not go to Missouri; in the meantime I hope it will be some additional inducement in your journey to Richmond this winter or spring, to call at Col. McDowell's.

I send my kindest regards to my aunt Preston, and to all your family, and beg you to believe me to be most truly & sincerely, your friend,

Thomas H. Benton.

Col. J. P. Preston, Smithfield, Vir.

SOURCE: William Montgomery Meigs, The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, p. 131

Amos A. Lawrence to Franklin Pierce, July 15, 1855

Boston, July 15, 1855.

My Dear Sir, — It is evident that there is a body of men in Missouri who are determined to drive our people from Kansas, if they dare to do so; and for the reason that the settlers from the “free States” are opposed to the introduction of slave trade there. Up to this time the government has kept so far aloof as to force the settlers to the conclusion that if they would be safe, they must defend themselves; and therefore many persons here who refused at first (myself included) have rendered them assistance, by furnishing them the means of defense.

Yours with regard,

A. A. L.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 95

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, March 1859

March, 1859

My lectures are over [for the season]. One of the last was at Dedham, and I stayed at Edmund Quincy's charming, English-looking place. Did you ever hear of an English traveller who, looking out of Mr. Ticknor's window, pointed out as the only two Americans he had seen who looked like gentlemen, W. Phillips and Edmund Quincy?

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 72

Samuel Gridley Howe to Henry Wilson, May 15, 1858

May 15, 1858.

When I last wrote to you, I was not aware fully of the true state of the case with regard to certain arms belonging to the late Kansas Committee. Prompt measures have been taken, and will be resolutely followed up, to prevent any such monstrous perversion of a trust as would be the application of means raised for the defence of Kansas to a purpose which the subscribers of the fund would disapprove and vehemently condemn.

Faithfully yours,

S. G. Howe.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 462; Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 170.

Samuel Gridley Howe to Theodore Parker, July 5, 1850

London, July 5th, 1850.

My Dear Parker: — We have been here in this great maelstrom for nearly a week. On entering it and driving on, for miles and miles, through its streets and squares and parks, all hedged in by stores and houses and palaces, and thronged by thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women, riding or walking, rushing or lounging, labouring or idling, we had the usual feeling of the utter insignificance of the individual in the presence of the mighty mass of the living race. What were we to London? But turning to our little boy, who was sitting and playing with the tassels of the carriage, we had another feeling: the insignificancy of the mass compared to the individual. What is London to Samuel South Boston?¹

We have already seen something of life in London; our former acquaintance with some of the big (hum) bugs saving us the usual loss of time in getting into the charmed circle. I was before painfully impressed with the hollowness, the coldness, the selfishness and the sin which pervades high life here; and the pain is more acute now that I have a more vivid perception of the cruel injustice to the masses of the people, upon whose suffering bodies the superstructure of fashion and rank is raised. The inequalities of wealth, of social advantages and of domestic servitude are bad enough with us, but here they are dreadful, and as the French say, “Ils sautent aux yeux” at every step you take. Talk about negro slavery! talk about putting iron collars around serfs' necks and stamping them with their owners' names! what are these to taking grown-up men, decent, intelligent, moral men, dressing them like monkeys, with green coats, plush breeches and cocked hats, powdering their heads, and then sticking them up behind your carriage, two or three in a row, — not to do you any service, — not the slightest, not even to open your coach door, for one could do that, — but just to show them off as your serfs, and make your neighbours die with envy because you have the power to commit more sin against humanity than they have! I have no stomach to eat a dinner after having been ushered into the house through a double row of powdered, wigged, liveried lackeys, and sitting down in a chair with half a dozen guests and finding half a dozen men to wait upon them; give me rather brown bread on a wooden platter than turbot &c. off golden plates.

But here I am interrupted by Twisleton,² who has come to carry us off to the Exhibition, so I must close and trust to luck for finishing what I have to say in a postscript; if that does not get written, good-bye.

Ever yours,

S. G. Howe.

_______________

¹ At my brother Henry's birth, Theodore Parker said to my father, “as yon called Julia ‘Romana,’ because she was born in Rome, so you ought to call this boy ‘Sammy South Boston.’”

The boy was named Henry Marion for my mother's two brothers, but my father never forgot Mr. Parker's suggestion, and used often to speak of himself as Samuel South Boston.

² The Hon. Edward Twisleton, brother of Lord Say-and-Sele.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 313-4

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 6, 1859

Baton Rouge, Sunday, November 6, 1859.

I wrote you from the Kennett at Cairo - but not from Memphis. I got here last night about dark, the very day I had appointed, but so late in the day that when I called at the governor's residence I found he had gone to a wedding. I have not yet seen him, and as tomorrow is the great election day of this state I hear that he is going down to New Orleans to-day. So I got up early, and as soon as I finish this letter, I will go again.

I have been to the post-office and learn that several letters have come for me, all of which were sent to the governor. Captain Ricketts of the army, commanding officer at the barracks,¹ found me last night, and has told me all the news, says that they were much pleased at my accepting the place, and that all place great reliance on me, that the place at Alexandria selected for the school is famous for salubrity, never has been visited by yellow fever and therefore is better adapted for the purpose than this place. He thinks that I will have one of the best places in the country, and that I will be treated with great consideration by the legislature and authorities of the state. I will have plenty to do between this and the time for opening of school. I have yet seen nobody connected with the school and suppose all are waiting for me at Alexandria, where I will go tomorrow. . .

_______________

¹ The United States military post at Baton Rouge. - Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 45-6

John Brown to His Family, October 31, 1859

Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., Oct. 31, 1859.

My Dear Wife And Children, Every One, — I suppose you have learned before this by the newspapers that two Weeks ago today we were fighting for our lives at Harper's Ferry; that during the fight Watson was mortally wounded, Oliver killed, William Thompson killed, and Dauphin slightly wounded; that on the following day I was taken prisoner, immediately after which I received several sabre-cuts on my head and bayonet-stabs in my body. As nearly as I can learn, Watson died of his wound on Wednesday, the second — or on Thursday, the third — day after I was taken. Dauphin was killed when I was taken, and Anderson I suppose also. I have since been tried, and found guilty of treason, etc., and of murder in the first degree. I have not yet received my sentence. No others of the company with whom you were acquainted were, so far as I can learn, either killed or taken. Under all these terrible calamities, I feel quite cheerful in the assurance that God reigns and will overrule all for his glory and the best possible good. I feel no consciousness of guilt in the matter, nor even mortification on account of my imprisonment and irons; and I feel perfectly sure that very soon no member of my family will feel any possible disposition to “blush on my account.” Already dear friends at a distance, with kindest sympathy, are cheering me with the assurance that posterity, at least, will do me justice. I shall commend you all together, with my beloved but bereaved daughters-in-law, to their sympathies, which I do not doubt will soon reach you. I also commend you all to Him “whose mercy endureth forever,” — to the God of my fathers, “whose I am, and whom I serve.” “He will never leave you nor forsake you,” unless you forsake Him. Finally, my dearly beloved, be of good comfort. Be sure to remember and follow my advice, and my example too, so far as it has been consistent with the holy religion of Jesus Christ, — in which I remain a most firm and humble believer. Never forget the poor, nor think anything you bestow on them to be lost to you, even though they may be black as Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch, who cared for Jeremiah in the pit of the dungeon; or as black as the one to whom Philip preached Christ. Be sure to entertain strangers, for thereby some have — “Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.”

I am in charge of a jailer like the one who took charge of Paul and Silas; and you may rest assured that both kind hearts and kind faces are more or less about me, while thousands are thirsting for my blood. “These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” I hope to be able to write you again. Copy this, Ruth, and send it to your sorrow-stricken brothers to comfort them. Write me a few words in regard to the welfare of all. God Almighty bless you all, and make you “joyful in the midst of all your tribulations!” Write to John Brown. Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., care of Captain John Avis.

Your affectionate husband and father,

John Brown.

SOURCES: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 579-80