Camp Near Fredericksburg
Mar. 24 1863
My Darling
Wife,
I arrived here
to-day & found yours of 16th awaiting me. I wrote you from Culpeper informing you of the
battle of the 17th and have written letter for letter since we
parted – There is something wrong in the Post Office Dept – and I suppose when
you do hear from me you will get a bushel of my letters –
I have been
absent from here for some time and I feel like returning home. Your Loudon goods came to-day – a beautiful
mourning [illegible – "sept"?] (ribbed) silk 15 yds & trimmings, spools
of thread, pins gaiters and Morocco boots 2 ½ -- also a beautiful gold pen
& pencil for me – just such a one as I once had – marked “To my knight,”
from my Baltimore friend.
And now my
Darling how can I get them to you?
I will send them to Mrs Price & let you get them sent on if you
like.
My visits to
Richmond or rather my trips through Richmond are necessarily hurried. I do not think it strange I could not find
time to write to you. I wanted to write
a letter of more interest than the hurried scrawl, I would have been obliged to
write. While there I was mostly with
Alex & was up every night till 12 o’clock, when as you know I was too much
of sleepy head for any thing. And
so like Thomas you are beginning to doubt & question, well I could give
your doubts & questions a decided quietus if like Our Savior did Thomas, I
could thrust your hand into my side and bid you test there the pulsations of a
heart that for nearly eight years, been, & is yours. Do you suppose that in the midst of the gay
throng in which I sometimes mingle & receive the courtesies obsequiously
bestowed upon the Major General I can fail to think most of her –
the absent but not forgotten – who gave her plighted troth which was her all –
to the 2d Lieutenant, whose bit of parchment was the representative value of
his worldly fortune? Think of that
when you doubt, & bid those doubtings cease. Do not torture your mind with such
things. Be cheerful, confiding and true
& you will not be wanting in happiness.
Dismiss the apparitions of the past, cease to conjure up the
hobgoblins of future trouble, and take hold of the present with a firm hand and
stout heart, and thus mould under Divine Providence a future of contentment and
peace. I missed you from my side at
church & wished you there last Sunday so much. I had the comfort of hearing an excellent sermon from Dr
Peterkin.
The gallant
Pelham is mourned by every body. I had
not the slightest difficulty with Wat.
I put him on inspecting duty he was unable to continue it I told him he
had better resign and let some one take his place whose health would be
sufficient for the duty. He did not
hesitate a moment about the propriety of it.
I wrote him a very kind note & my motive was a conviction of duty
– which I am determined to keep in view in future – FitzHugh is to be Divn. Qr.
Mr. Price is already Major & A.D.C.
and And R. Venable & H.A. McClellan (adjt 3d VaCav) or D.F. Boyd (of Wythe) will be my other A.A.G. & office
worker. I think with a gallant aid I
shall then be O.K. I want an agreeable
and efficient staff, and will have the latter cost what it will in
feeling.
I found Mr Thos R.
Price & family delighted to see me & anxious for your return – if you
come [missing] might have you at Mr Garnetts for a day or two but leave the boy
& Mary with Maria or at Dundee. I
stopped at the latter place & saw all the family they were very kind and
begged me to write to you to come there and stay – It is convenient to the Army
& very agreeable to you, & I should be glad if you would accept. It is the best place I know of combining
health, comfort, and agreeable & congenial society. They are very sincere in attachment to
us. Mary I. Stuart (Clarke) has gone to
Housekeeping in Staunton -- & will want you to come there. Write often Dearest to yours