University of Virginia Library

Letter from Charles N. Tenney to Adelaide E. Case, 1862 April 22

I cannot apologize for not writing
sooner for all I could plead would be a
march and its attendant miseries.

We left our camp near Edinburg the17th
inst, and arrived here the same night, but
our baggage,did not come up until yesterday,
and it has rained quite heavily since until
this morning. If I did not know it is
my duty and that it pleases her for whom I would
die, I would not writeto- day.

I am not well dear Addie, nor have
I been for a week. I caught a severe cold,
and it has settled upon my lungs, and in my
head, leaving me a troublesome cough and
a severe headache, which last hangs on in
spite of every effort to remove it. —I can
hardly see the lines on the paper, so you must excuse the poor writing.

But I am still trying to perform my
duties in the company, and hope by the
time I write again I shall be fully
well. I wrote a "kind" of letter to you on
the11th inst, and sent it by a friend of mine
to Woodstock to be mailed, but it escaped his
memory, and he just gave it to me yesterday
I enclose it in this.

Our advance to New Market was
marked by nothing serious, but it was
a march of caution, also a series of brilliant
dashes. It would be useless for me to attempt
to particularize now, for I am not in a
proper state of mind. We saved the large
covered bridge across the Shenandoah, but
they tried hard to burn it.

Mt. Jackson is a small town and
not a very neat one, certainly not one
half as pretty as New Market. Our camp is near
the latter place distant only about half a mile

I went across the river a day or two since,

and what do you think I found?
Nothing more nor less than a genuine, and
pretty Secessionist in the form of a young lady
of about fifteen by name Miss Mary Rice.

Of course I immediately "set my cap" for
her and when I thought my self on the
verge of success imagine my chagrin as she
turned around and with all the sarcastic and
biting emphasis of which she is capable, said,
"Do you know that I hate Yankees?"

I replied "Do you know I do not, on the con-
trary, there is one I regard in a much more
amiable manner?" "Who is it, for the love
of mercy?" was the answer. I immediately
showed her the portrait of a certainhand-
some Ohioan, (I wouldn't tell you who it was,)
and with a look of scorn she said, "She isn't
pretty — she is a yankee." Said I — "she is pretty,
and a more handsome young lady cannot be
found in any or all of the Southern states."

"You look with partial eyes." said she.

"Do you see with impartial ones?" was my response
Finally she admitted that it was "pretty, but then
she is a yankee." By this time, my "righteous
indignation" began to rise, and I said almost
petulantly, "Yes, she is a Yankee girl, and she is
proud of it, and so am I. — More that that —
she would die sooner than submit to have
the glorious Stars and stripes trampled under
foot by traitors without giving them their
just reward a traitors doom." and I will
fight for her and her country, and rest assured,
I'll not submit or return home, until your
unholy flag be trailed in the dust. aye destroyed."

We conversed some time longer, during which
I did not fail to instil into her mind, that
patriotism, to ones country, consists in "obeying
the constitution and enforcing the laws." and I
flatter myself I left her a less violent secessionist
than she was when I went there.— At any rate
she condescended to give me my supper, while
she would not some others who were there.

I would answer your kind letters in a more
detailed and concise form, my darling but my
head instead of ceasing to ache. "puts in harder."
As soon as I get better, I will write you a good
long — and I hope more interesting than this —
letter. I will also answer Laurie's kind letter
in a day or so, meanwhile give her my
kind regards, also. Dora and all who inquire
for me.