Camp at Hamiltons Xing

Sunday April 26^th 1863

 

My Dear Mother

                                    As the glorious sunlight of this beautiful Sabbath morning awakens a feeling of thankfulness for life & health, my thoughts turn gladly homewards, & I devote my time, while waiting for Mr. Lacy's services to begin, to a quiet conversation with you. Your letter of last Sunday came safely on Wednesday, for the mails are very regular now, & as I opened it & the violets fell out in my hand, I did long to be you—to go round into every corner of the yard & garden & hunt them up as they nestle in close under the leaves & grass. The yard is beautiful now, I know. The buds have begun to swell & the peach trees are just bursting into blossom. The grass is green under foot & the sky is blue overhead here, as with you, but no flowers to pluck, & no church bells to call to prayer & praise. Our temple is not made with hands. No flowers did I say—there are some, for on Friday afternoon as I rode to Moss Neck I stopped in a field where the ground was blue with them & gathered my hat full of a delicate little flower, which I called "Forget me Not" & Kate said was "Eupatoria", but the learned gentlemen here say the "Forget me Not" has five petals while this flower has but four. If I think of it, I will send some in the next letter I send. Besides / these I have gathered from time to time daisies in various quantities & buttercups & last Sunday as Kate & I rambled through some of the dells around Moss Neck I found a great many Trilliums. This country is beginning to look beautiful now. And in time of peace, it must have been a lovely region & pleasant to dwell in. The people are perfectly unconcerned about the Yankees & wherever there is any force left to work are busy with their crops. The wheat looks well & considerable preparation is made for corn. For this large Army has done very little damage except in clearing off the wood this winter & most of the enclosures remain intact. True the majority of them are hedges & wattling fences surmounting ditchbanks. The greatest destruction & change in the appearance of the country is by the long lines of trenches & the redoubts which crown every hillside from ten miles above Fredericksburg to twenty miles below. The world has never seen such a fortified position. The famous lines at Torres Vedras could not compare with them, & there are redoubts here to which the Malakoff & Redan are weak & easy to be stormed. As I go to Moss Neck I follow the lines & have a "ride in the trenches". These are 5 feet wide & 2½ deep, having the earth thrown towards the enemy making a bank still larger. They follow the contour of the ground & hug the bases of the hills as the wind to & from the river, thus giving natural flanking arrange / ments & from the tops of the hills frown the redoubts for sunken batteries & barbette batteries, ad libitum; far exceeding the number of our guns; while occasionally, where the trenches take straight across the flats to avoid the long detour where the heights recede too far, a redoubt nicely riveted with sod some 3 feet thick on every face & the interior filled with loose dirt, & the whole protected by a strong stockade, stands out defiantly in the open plain to receive our howitzers & deal death broadcast to the Yankees should their curiosity tempt them to an investigation. But I fear we must go & hunt up Mr. Hooker, he has no intention of paying us a visit. I begin to be anxious for the start. Of course I dread the danger & distress that must come to so many, but our army is in fine condition & so surely as we meet Hooker's army, defeat sore & bloody is in store for him & I hope decisive victory for us. Early in May—so soon as the grass is well grown & we get on the full complement of animals for our Artillery & wagons—, impedimenta well termed by Caesar, we shall be off. I have not sent my trunk yet. It goe  s this week by a safe hand to Capt. Avis who will send it to you. I will send 50 lbs. sugar, if I can get it. Some clothes, only a very few, will be in the trunk. You may dispose of the vest as you see fit, but the coat I want kept, as it has the bullet hole in it, where I was struck at Fredericksburg. The carpet has not reached me yet. I will get it though, for Capt. Avis wrote me he / had sent it on by a safe hand. Except that I should be sorry to lose it, being Ned Lee's, I do not care particularly about it as I have a nice box with lock & key, which use now as a desk, & can take for a trunk, as I would have to dispense with it at any rate when we march.

 

            Mrs. Jackson is here with the General—came last Monday—looking exceedingly well, better than I ever remember to have seen her. And the baby is surprisingly like the General for so young a creature. On Thursday he had it baptised by Mr. Lacy, and gave the singularly incongruous names of Julia Laura—Julia for his mother & Laura for her youngest sister. She is staying at a Mr. Yerby's a beautiful place some ¾ of a mile from our camp, and as there is very little to do now in the way of office business, he spends a good deal of time with her. She asked most affectionately for you & all the girls & sent her love.

            I hope before long a good photograph of Genl^s Lee & Jackson can be gotten. Minnis the photographer from Richmond came up Friday & took their pictures & is I presume going to strike off copies for sale.

 

            Pa was to have come up & preached yesterday by invitation to the Chaplains, but the rain of Friday morning prevented. Tuesday week May 5^th is fixed as the day—I hope evening be quiet, so he can come—

 

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I got a long letter from Aunt Anne Rose last Monday. Have answered it. Love to all. I hope Nancy is better—Tell Mary I am going to send her $30 in my next & she must buy a nice spring dress. I see Lyle Wilson has blockade goods & I hope that will get one. If it doesn't I'll add more—

                                               

Yr. fond son

A. S. Pendleton

 

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Col. Faulkner is sick & gone. I'll have more to do. I have just finished

I cotis [citas] Napoleon.

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