Camp at Hamilton's Crossing

16. Ap. 1863

 

My Dear Lella

                        Your letter I found here on Monday morning on my return from Moss Neck where I went on Sunday & had to stay all night in consequence of the rain. I am very much obliged to you for it, and all the more, as you don't often take the trouble to congratulate write to me. For your congratulations I thank you, and assure you, I don't think, I ever deserved any as much. I am glad you are pleased with the anticipation of your Sister Kate. But as far as I can see there is no cause for your uneasiness about my getting married. I am not so yet, and I fear am still a good long time removed from it. The war & many other things may intervene before it. But nothing will do more than postpone it, I trust. I am glad you have made up your mind not be hurt at Sister Sue & Mary's not showing you the letter / they got locked up. I can't help thinking about you as a little girl & I don't want to for fear I should feel old, & that Mary & Rose will seriously object to I know. So Ma & Rose are at home at last. How you all must rejoice at their presence. I presume, however, that, as glad as the rest of the household may be, Mary is the one to be most congratulated upon their safe arrival. For your labours as Chambermaid will only be limited by Martha's recovery, which will not be long postponed I hope. Speaking of sick people, I am glad you gave me such good news from Buck. Send & ask particularly about him for me & let me hear how he is in every letter, for you can't tell how much I miss him. It is utterly impossible to get another boy here, and it is right hard to manage without one. Douglas does very well, however, as well in fact, as could be expected of anyone. How does Ned Lee get on without / him? I hope Ma has gotten my letters & started my little black valise. I want it very much, for the army may move any day now, and I must send my trunk off. I shall send it to Staunton to Capt. Avis if I can, & if not to Cousin Fanny Pagin Richt We are all on the qui vive for announcement here any day now. All extra baggage has been sent off & as soon as we can get up our horses for the wagons & artillery I presume we shall be off. But this is by no means certain. We may be kept here a month still, while any day may see us off for our summer excursion in search of unheard of places, & studying the minute geography of the State. If our perambulations will only take us into the Valley & across the Potomac again, I for one will gladly undergo the necessary privations, & so will our whole army, which is now in fine spirits & excellent condition.

 

Spring is here in earnest. The leaves are out on the weeping willow & other trees of that class and the buds in the forests are swelling. The grass in the fields looks quite / fresh & green, and is welcomed with great neighing & kicking up of heels by the horses & mules, who have been cooped up all winter & limited to 6 pounds of weasly corn a day, and whose meals have often been eked out I daresay by the recollection of sweet clover enjoyed in times past & the anticipation of the like again this summer. This fine sunshiney morning sees all the household in the garden, I doubt not, looking after flowers & vegetables, talking & speculating as to news. I should like to join you. But here I sit in front of a desk full of papers to be attended, while two clerks are hard at work at a table by me copying orders for me, which I have to stop & sign every ten minutes or so; while ever & anon comes in some poor fellow with unkempt hair & unwashen face to present his petition for a furlough, which is sure to be refused him. The monotony is varied by an occasional courier to tell of a skirmish of the cavalry, or the desertion of some conscripts, when I must write / letters & send cavalry off to hunt up the delinquents & bring them back, if they can be caught, which don't often happen. The morning papers come about 12 & we read the news & have an hour's talk as to the conduct of the war in other quarters. Our own affairs here never give us any concern. If the other armies were as safe as ours, the cause of the C.S.A. would be fixed securely, we think, & others seem to agree with us. Very often something turns up to enable us to pass the time very pleasantly. For instance Yesterday afternoon a wagon came with a present of a box of wine for the General. It was just after dark, & we were all in our respective tents, smoking, reading, lounging, as the case might be, but all congratulating ourselves on the ability of canvass to keep out rain, which was falling in torrents, and thanking the inventor of chimneys to tents, when a message came round inviting the gentle / men of the Staff to come & drink wine with the General in his tent. I went of course & found the hero of so many battles seated on his camp bed, made of logs & stuffed with leaves & hay, with a brilliant staff around him. There was seated or rather reclining on his right his young kinsman & Aide De Camp Lieut. Morrison, whose noble bearing upon many a hard fought field had won admiration & whose handsome face had caused a thrill in many a fair one's heart. Next the calm & sagacious features of the Statesman Col. Faulkner, Chf. of Staff attracted attention, who had testified his devotion to the cause in a Northern Bastile, & whose labours here have added such efficiency to the organization of the 2^d Army Corps. There was the tall & handsome Medical Director of the 2^d Corps, whose skill in his profession & wonderful administrative power are so plainly seen in the admirable management of the hospitals & the attention always bestowed upon the sick & wounded—whose intellectual attainments are only surpassed by his / geniality of disposition & tenderness of heart. The Junior Aide De Camp Lieut. Smith would have been noticed in any assemblage. Not large in stature, there beamed from his eye that intensity of courage & fixedness of purpose, which had gained for the "Little Corporal" of the Rockbridge Artillery the distinction of the best gunner in the that honoured & veteran organization. All branches of the service were represented there for the frank & noble Chaplain of the 2^d Corps, the Reverend B. T. Lacy, lent the charm of his society to the assemblage & made the conversation sparkle with bon mots, as it changed under his wizard touch from "grave to gay", giving now a serious turn to the jest, and now convulsing all with mirth in his inimitable raillery. And last but not least was the only other member of the Staff present, Maj. A. S. Pendleton A.A.G, young in years, but a veteran in service, bearing on his person the scars of more than one fight, who along with / D^r M^cGuire had served from the beginning of the war at the side of the victor of Kernstown & Winchester, Front Royal, M^cDowell Cedar Run & Harpers Ferry, and had won his promotion from a 2^d Lieutenantcy to his present grade by hard service in the field; of whom no less a person than Gen. Early had said that "he is the best Staff officer I know." In such a cortêge there could scarce have failed to be congeniality & pleasantry, and as the wine circulated, & warmed the blood & quickened the intellect & fired the imagination, there was sprightly conversation & playful jest, grave argument & mirthful anecdote, bandinage & seriousness, in which the hours passed rapidly and we forgot that we were in the presence of the one who sealed the destinies of this nation & at whose beck thousands stood ready to rush to the deadly combat—(If you don't think these three pages fine, just compare it with any old page of the New York Ledger & you will find the style pretty much the same)—

 

I must to work—Goodbye. God bless you. write to me often, I am always but too glad to hear. Love to all—Your fond brother            A. S. Pendleton

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