 | Letter to Chloe Unity Blair |  |
1862-11-24
I write you a few lines this
morning which will inform you that my
Self and John is yet in the land of
the
living and injoying a reasonable portion
of
health, and much hopeing, th when
this comes
to hand it may find you and all injoying
the same great blessing, I
have no news of interest
to write, we have
bin marching for the last
four days, we got here yesterday evening, I understand
there is plenty of yankees near hear, tho I havent
seen eny of them, we met the citizens moving
out yesterday as we came in, thay said the yankees
was going to bshell the town yesterday, tho
thay
have not commenced shelling yet, I would not
be surprised to hear the canon at eny
time,
I think our men is waiting for the
yankees
to open the ball, I hope thay will leave
while our Genals Generals
is waiting for them to
commence fighting, I
think thare is verry
strong
force here on both sides, if we have a
battle
here I expect it will be a
verry hard one,
I got a
letter from sister Mary[2] last friday
dated 17th inst[3]
if you see her be fore
cliff Penic
[4] starts tel her not to
send
our coats
to start write to me soon
Picketts division Near Fredricksburg
In mid-November of 1862, Lee ordered Longstreet's corps to Fredericksburg, fearing an attack from Union General Ambrose E. Burnside's Army of the Potomac. From November 20 to November 22, the 38th Virginia joined the rest of Longstreet's corps in marching from their camp at Culpeper to their new camp near Fredricksburg, Virginia. As the Union soldiers made their own preparations just across the Rappahannock River, the 38th drilled, served picket duty, and underwent inspections (Gregory 29).
"Sister Mary" is Mary Ann Booker Sparks (1825-1872), the older sister of James and John Booker. See Booker letters of August 3, 1862 and April 29, 1864.
According to the OED, "inst." is an abbreviation for "instant," which refers to the current calendar month; for example, the 10th instant is the tenth day of the current month.
"Clifton Pinick" probably is Charles Clifton Penick, who was with Company D from its founding in May of 1861. He served as a Quarter Master Sergeant, and was in the Confederate Army until he was paroled at Appomatox in 1865. He later became a missionary in West Africa and the Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church Richmond at Shenandoah Flats (Gregory 117). Penick is also mentioned in John Booker's letter of February 19, 1862.
| Letter to Chloe Unity Blair | |