University of Virginia Library

"Our hearts were inexpressibly cheered this evening by the receipt
of your letter of May 11, which is the only intelligence we
have had direct from you since that written March 3, by Mr. West.
Your mother writes that she has sent us all of your letters, but not
one of them has ever reached us except E—'s, giving the description
of your first journey. We embrace every opportunity of
sending letters to points where they can be mailed. You would be
more than surprised to see how quiet and comfortable we are here.
The enemy has paid us but one short visit, of which mamma
wrote you this week. There were three hundred, and they stayed
only two or three hours, their sole errand being to arrest Mr.
Letcher,—on what plea no one knows. There are as yet no
'Freedmen' here, and our 'servants' are still in statu quo. Mr.
Slow was permitted to go with Henry Douglass to Jefferson, to
visit his family, some time ago. Mrs. P—'s Harriet had to be
notified to leave three days ago, as she seemed inclined to assert
her equality. Their benefactors tell them in proclamations that,
though 'free', they do not share their masters' property, and will
have to work to support themselves even harder than they have
done heretofore. We have an armed patrol which keeps perfect
order and makes them stand in some fear. Dudley has been with
us since Tuesday. We never hear a word from Richmond, though
papa has received forty dollars of the one hundred dollars.[2] We

could not live without it. Papa has gotten both gardens in fine
order, and the rain, which has been falling all day, will help all of
his pets. The big lot which we planted in corn seems to bid fair
to repay our labors, and I hope our patches of watermelons and
muskmelons will flourish too. The whole atmosphere here is
redolent with the sweet perfume of the thousand roses which
delight our eyes. The bushes were much killed by the severe
winter, but the bloom, though not so profuse as I have seen it,
is very beautiful. We have had three little dishes of strawberries
for our tea, and sugar with them too. But the baby
grows beyond everything here. He is devoted to both of his
grandparents, and it is amusing to see their efforts to entice
him to leave the arms of one and go to the other. The little
monkey has had so little experience of the good things of this
life that he refuses both sugar and strawberries. We got the
four dresses by Mr. Charles Lee, and we cannot express our
gratitude and thanks for them. Nancy and Rose took the calicoes,
mamma the chally de laine, and the other is put by for
Lella. . . . Papa is sleepy and tired by the setting out of several
hundred cabbage-plants, so we must leave him the privilege of
retiring. We are afraid to look into the future, and can only
trust ourselves in the hands of our all-seeing and all-merciful
Father, who doeth all things well."

"My dear Child,—Your letter of May 25 reached us yesterday
in a bundle, sent by Mrs. Lee, containing two mousseline dresses
and a dozen beautiful handkerchiefs. . . . You ask how we get on.
Much as usual. The 'Freed' have not left yet, but will do almost
nothing. We have plenty of flour, but not a bit of meat, though
we have only been a few days with a dinner of herbs. This day
week we had dried apples, lettuce, and our Georgia molasses.
The next morning before breakfast Colonel Gilham sent me a
fore-quarter of nice mutton, which made us comfortable dinners
for four days. Yesterday and to-day we dine on herbs. True

to my resolution not to open the molasses until your papa's return,
we have it now in this our scantest time. We opened it on
the day you wrote last, Ascension Day. Dudley was here, so
Mary made a good pudding of the cherries we dried last summer,
and we thought it delightful. Lest you have not received
our letters, I must tell you again that your papa is at work frequently
from five in the morning until six in the evening. I
trust it may please Heaven to give us fruitful seasons and a
rich reward for all his labors. He has the garden in beautiful
order. . . .

"Our oppressors have as yet established no mails. I hate to
be indebted to them for even what will be a comfort to us. No
letter from Anne Rose since April. . . . Your papa says I must
tell you both he waits on Providence. If they infringe his parole
he will appeal to General Grant. If you have not received our
letters you don't know that Mr. Norton left the Tuesday after
your papa got home, and the vestry asked your papa to take
charge of the parish until they get a minister, saying frankly
that they can pay him nothing. I suppose we will stay until
they can afford to pay him, and that will be a long, long time.
The house leaks dreadfully, but still we are comfortable. . . .
Why we are so prostrated I cannot see. I cannot think we are a
dead people, and that all that we have done and suffered is for
less than naught I cannot believe.

"Our enemies are now hunting poor Governor Smith 'like a
flea in the mountains.' Last night seventy-five men rode up to
General Smith's and searched for him. Colonel Massie's house
was searched too. It is said three negroes went to Staunton and
reported the poor man here. We hear these seventy-five soldiers
are come to stay; they are encamped in General Smith's meadow
opposite the Institute grounds. Your Uncle Philip's negroes had
gone, and most of them from Oakland. Betsey wrote that John,[3]
Bob,[4] and William,[5] with two women, were replanting corn,
Dear Aunt Judy quite well. She still has President Davis prayed
for. The two last Sundays your papa has omitted the prayer.
It seems right, but is very painful. . . . Mrs. Letcher has heard
of Governor Letcher from a friend in Winchester, who went to

see General Torbert to inquire after him. He is in a comfortable
room in the arsenal, closely guarded, and not allowed to write
to her. . . . Our baby is very sweet. I trust he may escape
measles, which are all around us."

"My dear Daughter,—Your Cousin Bob, who came on a
brief visit last Friday, leaves us to-morrow morning, and as he
expects to take a trip on business as far as Washington, and
probably to New York, his going furnishes an opportunity not to
be lost of communicating with General Edwin and yourself.
Your last letter written on Ascension Day duly reached us,
greatly to the comfort of all the household, for hopeful as we
are that you will both continue safe and well where you are,
we are always anxious to hear freshly and definitely of your
well-being.

"I have not much to tell you in the way of news. Indeed, of
the general course of events you are kept by the Northern papers
better informed than we are. Papers frequently reach here,—
Northern, Richmond, and Lynchburg,—but it is not often that I
can permit myself to encounter the irritation of reading them.
There seems still to be some uncertainty as to Andy Johnson's
purpose respecting officers and others excepted from the Amnesty
Proclamation,—whether he intends confiscation and banishment,
or either one without the other, or some other infliction, or a final
exoneration. I am not particularly anxious about my own destiny
in the case. Satisfied as I am that duty in the sight of God
has been my aim, and that our cause is and has always been a
righteous one, I hope I can meet the trial that may come in the
right spirit and still possess my soul in patience, relying upon
those supports which the Almighty will not withhold from His
servant looking to Him in trouble. But the fact is I do not believe
the shrewd Andy will violate Grant's parole, notwithstanding
the blood-and-thunder announcement of malignant judges,
charging grand juries, etc., etc. Our parole pledges the honor
of Grant and his superior subordinates that so long as we remain
at our homes obedient to the laws recognized in the section
where we reside, we shall be in all respects unmolested by the
Federal authorities. And although some wretches affect to

regard this as a mere military arrangement not to be respected
in civil relations, that pretext is too flimsy to cover their treachery.
This view I shall, if at any time molested, endeavor to
present in the way of protest to Grant and his associates. Nor
can I believe they will disregard it. And on this ground
none of the stories about the arrest of General Lee, etc., much
affect me. I do not believe they will venture to harm him or
any of us.

"But even without this our condition is bad enough. At one
swoop they have robbed the South of two thousand millions of
dollars' worth of property vested in labor. The desolations of
their unscrupulous warfare have diminished our values by fully
as much more, besides all the loss of capital incident to the expenses
of our own defensive effort, so that our people have since
this time four years ago been divested of, I suppose, about
five thousand millions of dollars' worth of capital. This is only
a minor element in our situation. Thousands, ay, tens of thousands,
of our noblest population have been shot down by German,
Irish, negro, and Yankee wretches invading our homes
under the impulse of Northern envy and malice, stimulated by
fanatical madness in some, lust of power and plunder in others,
and iniquitous passion in all, though sought to be covered over
by the shallow pretence of virtuous devotion to constitutional
liberty, as represented by the best government the world ever
saw. Sad as this is it is not half. We have no country left, nor
hope of one for an indefinite period. Few dare say their souls
are their own. None can write, or at least publish, what they
know to be truth in opposition to Yankee authority. No one
can vote without Andy's permission, nor trade, nor perform any
function involving relations with society without permission of
the same functionary. Soldiers are quartered all over the land,
and with the insolence of rowdies arrest whom they please.
Our people are for the most part disarmed and exposed to insult
and attack from the negroes let loose. These are thrown broadcast
upon our society, idle, improvident, homeless, helpless, to
perish by thousands. Yankee adventurers are appearing among
us with money to cheat our people out of their little remaining
coin. Our banks are all said to be ruined. Contracts made
since the war are pronounced by Andy and his tool, Pierpont,

invalid. We have no country, no currency, no law. When such
facts and the prospect they exhibit rise before me, I feel almost
thankful that so many of our beloved have been taken from the
evil here. For ourselves, we are much favored by a kind Providence.
Our servants remain much as they have been, but Martha
is getting ready, I believe, for a trip to Richmond. Poor creatures,
they little dream of the difficulties freedom will bring them.
They cherished the absurd idea that they would exchange places
with us,—be gentlemen and ladies in our homes and have us for
their negroes. To find themselves still black, with woolly heads,
is to them an immense disappointment. Altogether the case is
gloomy enough. Still, we have thousands of sensible and brave
men and true-hearted, heroic women who, while submitting to
evil at present unavoidable, will cherish their own country and
its principles in their inmost being, and keep alive that noble
character which has heretofore distinguished us, hoping for some
ordering in the future by which divine Providence may yet enable
us to achieve the independence which is our birthright and of
which we have now been despoiled by a mighty combination. . . .
It may be one reason why Supreme wisdom has allowed us to be
so overwhelmed,—that we must cease to be such comparative
idolaters in our estimate of Virginia and our character and privileges
as freemen; that we must be content to live without a
country, having our hearts engrossed with that better land where
no sin enters, and where peace and charity prevail forever. Our
Saviour and the apostles lived thus under foreign domination.
So lived many of the martyrs. And surely we may well follow
their example in giving our affections to that better country of
which, by God's grace, no earthly malice or power can despoil
us. While I have been writing this, Kate has just received a
letter from her friend, Miss Sallie Munford, in Richmond, telling
among other things of the fact that Colonel Walter H. Taylor,
General Lee's adjutant-general, and a number of other officers
have been summoned to give evidence against General Lee as
charged with high treason, and that the expectation is general
that he will be tried. This may be so. But I still do not feel
that they will so outrage the common judgment of mankind as
to attempt violence towards one admired throughout Christendom
for his extraordinary virtues. A creature named Underwood,
appointed, as a tool of tyranny, judge of the eastern district of
Virginia in place of Judge Halyburton, has recently charged the
grand jury in Norfolk in the most furious and bloody manner to
indict rebel leaders, urging among other things that the parole
on surrendering was only a military arrangement entitled to no
consideration by the civil authorities. I shall write this morning
to Major-General Gibbon, who was their ranking officer on the
commission for adjusting the terms of surrender for our army,
calling his attention to the solemn compact by which they pledge
that we should be 'in all respects unmolested by the Federal
authorities,' and claiming its fulfilment as an obligation of honor
on himself and his associates. . . .

"But enough of all this. We get on in considerable comfort.
Sometimes, just now, without meat for a few days, but then with
abundance of bread, milk, and butter, and a supply of fruits and
vegetables. The fruit of my labors in the garden is beginning to
appear. Everything flourishing. My lots, too, are doing very
well. I employ myself also in reading, and before long shall
begin writing, first the memoir of our beloved Sandie and then
recollections of the great struggle.[6] Of course foreign publication
only can be secured. The little Sandie improves daily. He
is certainly a very fine and uncommonly sweet child, so good
and sweet-tempered. . . . We have not yet received the remaining
sixty dollars of the one hundred dollars from Mary Williams.
Kate is to have thirty dollars of it when it comes. I must stop.
All send love. God bless you both.

"My dear Papa,—It was an unspeakable pleasure to me to receive
your long letter last night. It is our greatest comfort to be
able to communicate with our friends and loved ones, and to feel
that we need not dread the interruption of this precious intercourse
at any moment. I am so thankful, too, that you are safe
and comparatively so comfortable. I hope you will soon get the
rest of the money from Richmond, as I am sure it will contribute
to your comfort. For a while I was most anxious about your
personal safety, especially after the indictment of General Lee.
But now I begin to believe that your view of the case is the
correct one, and that General Grant means to have his parole
respected. The papers say that Stanton ordered him to be arrested,
but General Ord refused to do it, saying he would resign
first. Then Grant interfered and said it should not be done. This
has been a comfort to me, for, even if they do try and find him
guilty, it will be absurd to talk of punishing a man whom they
cannot even arrest. And safety for him will be safety for all his
army. I cannot think either that wholesale confiscation will take
place, for the Northern papers are beginning to be very earnest
upon the utter impoverishment of the South and the absolute
necessity of letting the people alone, and giving them securities
for their remnant of property to insure anything like recuperation
of the energy and prosperity of the country. I think that Northern
financiers will ere long take the alarm also, and—out of sheer
selfishness, the consciousness that Southern productiveness is the
necessary basis of Northern wealth—will influence the law-makers
and tax-voters to something more of justice towards Southern
property-holders. As to the papers, I don't wonder at your being
disgusted with them, and yet, situated as we are, we read them
eagerly, for through them only can we gain the least idea of the
conditions of the people and state of things at the South. And
the changes and phases of public feeling at the North are not
without importance to us. I am (D. V.) certainly coming home
as soon as I can get an escort, but you must not say a word
about it. I do trust most earnestly that matters may subside by
winter, so that Edwin can get a pardon and permission to return.
Do you think us utterly demoralized for talking of such a thing?
I assure you we don't feel so, and the dose will be a nauseating,

bitter one, take it when we may. But I don't think it will be so
bad as exile. None know the horrible dread of that but those
who have experienced it. There is not, I believe, the smallest
prospect of Southern independence until the final breaking up
into many governments of the overgrown United States power,
and if it is to become a republic, I for one don't want to see it.
They must all drift into anarchy or tyranny. There is nowhere
that the masses of people can go and be better off; and if we are
to live under the Yankee rule, hateful as it is, I cannot see dishonor
or perjury in promising to obey the laws. As for the
amnesty oath, as Dan Lucas says, you only swear to support the
Constitution and everything heretofore done in violation thereof.
But for the future don't bind yourself to anything but the Constitution.
I must confess Pierpont is a harder mouthful for me
than Johnson. But if he is not the governor of the State no
one else is, and I suppose bad rule is better than none. To do
the creature justice, I think he does in a measure desire to ameliorate
the condition and gain the approbation of his unwilling
subjects. And while I share your cordial contempt for the men
who have so quickly rushed forward to take him by the hand
and make what they can for themselves, still I am inconsistent
enough to be rather glad that they have done it. He is said to
be so immensely flattered at their notice as to have some dawning
aspirations after the name and manners of a 'Virginia gentleman.'
And low as their standard and influence is apt to be, it must be
better and more for the interest of the State and people than those
of the miserable creatures who surround him in Alexandria. Of
course this is the way matters look from outside to one disposed
to try and find the best in what is all so bad.

"I am truly glad your garden and lots promise so well. We
only realize how our land is favored by residing elsewhere. This
is a bleak, barren land at best. Such a climate must be unproductive.
Sunday and Monday were intensely hot,—ninety degrees
in the shade,—and men and horses having sunstrokes. To-day
is uncomfortably cool: we have on thick clothing and the windows
all down. Still, the people might do much more in the way of
fruit and vegetables if they had any energy. It never seems to
occur to them that where plums, strawberries, and raspberries
grow so abundantly wild they can be improved and cultivated in

the gardens. I assure you, seeing the thriftless, untidy, ignorant
French and English Canadians has given me a certain sort of
respect for the tidy, notable Yankee ways, much as I hate the
people."

"General,—As one of the commissioners for adjusting the
terms of surrender at Appomattox Court-House, April 10, 1865,
I address you a brief appeal in view of occurrences recently
reported.

"First. I respectfully remind you of the condition of surrender,
—that officers and men thus submitting should, so long as observing
their own pledge and obeying the laws prevailing where
they reside, remain 'unmolested by the Federal authorities.'

"I observe that Judge Underwood charges the grand jury in
Norfolk to disregard this solemn assurance as a mere military
arrangement, not binding upon the civil authorities. You will
recollect that at the time it was understood to be a solemn compact,
rigidly binding on both sides and accepted on the venerable
sanctions of truth and honor. Surely you are aware that brave
men, who had for nearly four years encountered every form of
danger and privation in defence of rights they believed justly
theirs and wrongly assailed, would not have laid down their
arms, but would have battled on unto death, selling their lives as
dearly as possible, however great the odds against them, had they
supposed it possible the pledge of honor for their protection
could be disregarded afterwards, and that pains and penalties
even to the halter about their necks were to be inflicted. Fully
believing yourself and your associates to be actuated by genuine
sentiments of honor, widely as I differ from you in the estimate
of governmental relations connected with the war, I appeal to
you to exert such influence as you rightly can towards averting
the inflictions now sought by prejudice, passion, and unopposed
power to be visited upon the defenceless men who relied upon
your integrity in so critical a transaction. For myself I cannot,
without falsifying my convictions, apply for executive 'clemency.'
Because wholly conscious of having but the most virtuous intentions

in my share of the late defensive struggle, on my part, I
cannot do or say anything which signifies that I condemn myself
therefor. I am perfectly willing to submit my whole record in the
case to any just tribunal on earth, and more than willing to meet
the final adjudication of my course by the unerring Judge on
high. At the same time, included as I am in two of the classes
excepted from the benefit of President Johnson's late proclamation,
—viz., as a graduate of West Point and as above the rank
of colonel in the late service,—and having upon me family and
other obligations, which render peculiarly desirable exemption
on my part from further suffering under war measures, I wish as
far as possible to avoid inflictions that may be intended. My
original resignation from the United States army was after the
usual three years' service thirty-two years ago, and with full
sanction of the authorities, for the purpose of doing such good
in the land as I could in the capacity of a Christian minister and
a college professor. When my native and beloved Virginia
seceded and called upon her sons to aid her in repelling invasion,
I was, as for thirty years I had been, employed as a parochial
clergyman. The furious threats of Northern violence embodied
in the cry uttered by leading journals 'Booty and Beauty' induced
me to yield to the appeal of a volunteer company here
formed May 1, 1861, and to accept commission from the governor
of Virginia as its captain. And as the cry of Northern passion
seemed to become more furious, and as the pressure of power
against Virginia increased, I never found myself at liberty to
withdraw from a service thus entered upon. The value attached
to what were, or were supposed to be, my services to our endangered
South caused promotion to be tendered me, and for reasons
prevailing with me from the first I did not feel at liberty to decline,
hence my final relation to the Confederate service. So far
as in this brief recital there is explanation which may be favorably
interpreted, I shall be obliged to you if you can secure to
me the benefits thereof. At the same time honesty obliges me
to add that my convictions remain wholly unchanged respecting
the rights of the States, and the great wrongs inflicted on Virginia
and her Southern sisters by their Northern copartners, in
the flagrant violation of the compact of union by the latter which
compelled the former to seek redress by separation. As it has,
however, pleased the Almighty Ruler of the world to permit us
to be overwhelmed, I accept the necessity of the position, and
am willing to submit myself peaceably to an authority which,
whatever I think of its justice, I cannot resist to any good
purpose.

"Rev. and dear Brother,—Bishop Johns was here last week
and left one hundred dollars, which some one had given him
(I think) for any of our clergy. He directed me to send twenty
dollars each to five of our brethren, of whom you are one. I
have nothing to do but obey orders, and you will find the amount
enclosed. The other enclosure, a gold piece, ten dollars, I presume
George has written about. I think it came through Mrs.
Dr. Williams. I heard from 'E. G. Lee' under date June 5, Montreal,
Canada West. His health has greatly improved. It seems
the order of Providence that the North should overrun the South
in the New World as in the Old. But here, as there, the South
may impress the North with its civilization and religion, and be
the real conqueror in the end. I doubt not, however, that you
leave all in the hands of God. I have been greatly comforted by
four lines, the author of which I do not know,—viz.:

"With kindest regards to Mrs. Pendleton and the young
ladies, I am,