Fort Riley Kansas.
Mar 23d 1861
My Dear
friends
Your very kind
and welcome letter reached me at Fort Wise.
I am sorry sickness still prevails in your dear family but I devoutly
trust that as you are experiencing so much of trial and bereavement now that
there is a future proportionately bright for you. Mrs Cooke & Julia are with us at present and we are looking
every day for Lt Jno R. Cooke just in from Arizona on leave – after six years
absence. I am quietly waiting Va’s
action, preserving “a masterly inactivity” till the time for action
come. I verily believe that Lincoln is
only waiting for our Convention to adjourn without action decided, before he
begins Coercion. His evacuations of
Sumter and Pickens being distinctly announced as “a military not a political
measure” deprives it entirely of the spirit of conciliation & peace from
the Administration. Lincoln is only
waiting to get firmly seated on his throne.
I hear from private sources in Washington – that at least two Regts are
to be concentrated at Washington City – and that Brigadier Gen’l Sumner is to
have command there. Gen’l Scott has
also ordered two distinguished officers, Col Lee, & Col C.F. Smith to
report in person to him. Several other
acts of this Lictor General of Lincolns which I need not mention, savor of
coercion, and I am afraid Va will lose the opportunity to separate in peace --
& thus be obliged to do it in war.
We will be
sure to be driven by unfriendly legislation from the present Union even if we
now submit which I think every impulse & consideration of safety should
prevent her doing. In answer to much
that I have seen in the papers as well as your own letter I will say that
whenever Va needs the service of her sons in the Army she will find them
flocking to her standard, and her trouble will be not in getting enough – but
in knowing how to determine which to accept & which to decline. I will except in this class all who like
Gen’l S. have expatriated themselves and rendered themselves unworthy of their
State.
I write this
in confidence for Gen’l Scott is already carrying on a secret inquisition
through the Army to know whom he can trust with his diabolical designs. I send you a testimonial in reference to my
sabre attachment. I have submitted it
to the Va Armory Board but can not hear whether or not they adopted it. Gen’l
Cocke wrote to me very favorably of it.
Will you do me the kindness to find out from those controlling such
matters what chance there is of having a number of the sabre belts ordered for
Va Cavalry, and whether if I could satisfy a committee or the Board of the
value of this improvement it would avail for me to go on from St Louis on a
flying visit to Richmond to do it. I
would not like to undertake so expensive a visit on an uncertainty – Please
make inquiry as to this matter & tell my mother who will communicate it to
me. I shall be in St Louis about the 5th
of April at any rate & I would like her to write to me there “Care of
Jno D. Coalter Esqr” so that if the it would be worth while to go on
there I can continue from St Louis. All
are well & send much love. When Va
secedes I will resign instanter &
go to Va – to Richmond first – if she do not before the 15th of
April I shall with Flora rejoin my Regt.
The vacancies already reported to have occurred make me Capt 1st
Cavalry.
Very truly yours
J.E.B.Stuart
Postscript
Let me know what
you think of Virginia City as an investment – I enclose an advertisement of
it. The aspect is plausible. – Give my
sincere regards to the Howitzer and tell him that it looks very much as if Va
was going to order him to limber up and move to the right about. Considering the scheming operations of Gen’l
Scott – I deem it a simple duty to apprize you as a man on the spot to be sure
to bear in mind of how great importance the Tredegar Works are to the South –
no one knows better than Gen’l Scott their value to us and no man will see the
importance to taking possession by a “coup-de-main.” I beg you to see that it is secured at once as soon as the
secession ordnance passes the Convention.
If Gen’l Scott was willing to incur the immense loss of life which took
place at Molino Del Rey to capture a similar place is it not plain that he will
be quite as intent upon seizing Tredegar.
If we have war I want to be Vis a vis Sumner so as to teach him
some cavalry evolutions, & take him prisoner. It would be “sweet revenge” to be able to treat him with
distinguished consideration as a prisoner of war.
By the way
Does Wise’s plan meet with adherents?
Does not even a blind man see that to take up arms in the Union
is to make Va guilty of the baseness of making every son of hers amenable to
the crime of Treason, whereas if she resumed her sovereignty, all of her
sons who fell into the federal hands would be prisoners of war while so
far as results would go she would in the Union be helping by her revenue to
wage war against herself. Secede
& she is a power foreign to the Federal Govt. & can with propriety hold
the other states, “enemies in war in peace friends.”
Present my
best wishes to Mr Duval and Mr August and any other friends who remember me.
Yours Truly
J.E.B.Stuart