Fortress Monroe. Feb 26, 1864

 

My Dear Friend Anderson

                        Yours of the 20^th and later reached me yesterday morning, and as is always the case with your letters, was full of interest. I read it with much pleasure, and only wished that I might hear from you oftener. I am not very busy this afternoon, and as I may not be so privileged again for some time, I am going to give you an early reply, and yet I am at a loss to think what I can send you that will not have been told before. Since General Butler came here, the place has been visited here by so many that you know, who have returned home, and related their experience, that life at "Old Point" in all its shades must have been faithfully portrayed to you. If there is anything that has hitherto escaped their sight, "Stone" of the Courier remains to tell it.

 

            I must therefore give you "personal" rather than "local" intelligence, and incur the risk of egotism. Striking "in medius res", I have the honor to state, that I am yet in Captain Wilder's office, and flourishing about the same as usual. I have got all / the old unfinished jobs about done, and when my Monthly Returns are made for this month, I shall have comparatively little to do, but draw my pay, and that, although very agreeable, isn't of much use here just now, for I am at a loss to know what use to put it to. When business is dull, and I have two or three days to myself, I get very uneasy and build all sorts of castles in the air, and if I should have a month of idleness, I should leave here, for I can't endure it. Just imagine yourself condemned to stop in Windham, or any other small place, for a month without being able to leave it, or not having any thing to do while there. Wouldn't you bust? I have no taste or desire to come back to New England to get a living, or make a fortune, although I know of no place where a man could more agreeably spend one. If I could advantageously locate myself in Norfolk, I think if I could have some two or three genial companions there, I could be satisfied. Sure am I, that if ever "this cruel war is over", Eastern Virginia will be a place where any "Yankee" can thrive. This I am prepared to show you, when you come out here, and I wish you would give the matter some little attention, as you may wish to avail yourself of some opportunity very soon. If you have / anything definite to ask the General for, you may rely upon a decided answer to your questions, and if in his power, he will help you to what you may want. He is very liberal to any Northern man who wishes to do business here; or in any way to help inaugurate a more modern and energetic way of doing business, than was common here, before the rebellion. He proposes to infuse into the domestic economy of this part of Virginia as much northern energy and enterprise as he can possibly command. The immense field for such a work, you will not readily imagine until you have been out here and seen for yourself. I suppose the practice of your profession is indispensable to your happiness, unless a "pile" is in immediate view in an other. Trade in the department has to be conducted under all the regulations and restrictions of the embargo, and unless one has either a large capital or what is better, the monopoly of the trade at any locality, the profit is uncertain. I laid my plans for a little mercantile operation, up in the country, at a place called the "halfway house", about fifteen miles from here. I did not think I could afford to lose my job here, for an uncertainty, so I deputed a cousin of mine, a smart man, who has been clerking it up at Yorktown for several weeks, to take charge and / by my assistance in buying, to run the machine. I thought I had the thing "fine", but he has surveyed the place, and this week reported that it unsafe, as the rebels come down there almost every week, and he is afraid the concern and himself would be "gobbled". I do not know where I shall strike next, but I wish to begin somewhere. The "Cotton Plantation" style will do as well as anything else, if you are certain we could make a crop. I ain't much given to fancy gardening, or in fact farming operations any way, but with your assistance, I would do whatever is needful. I really wish we could patch up something together.

 

            I remain here in my office nearly all the time except Sundays, when, for the past few weeks, I have disported myself considerably. I am about a quarter of a mile from the Baltimore wharf, and some ways from the main entrance to the Fort, and so unless people visiting here take some pains to find me, I do not see them. I met A. R. Brown inside the Fort, when he was here, and Peter Lawson called on me. George W. Fiske has been into see me twice, although I was guiltless / of his acquaintance in Lowell. Sanborn made me his banker, when he was here, and I had fifteen hundred dollars on deposit for him nearly three weeks. That was all owing to masonry, I suppose. Henry Webber was here on Wednesday. Captain Weymouth got here last Sunday morning and is stopping at the Hygeia Hotel, in Camp Hamilton. He will probably have command of an Infantry Regiment of Colored Troops. Lt. Coburn's brother Edward who is in Burbank Chase & Co's arrived here this morning with William P. Webster and Daniel S. Richardson. There is a rumor that the 1^st Cavalry are to go to Florida soon. Lt. Spaulding has got back, and reports seeing you. He has his father and mother here, and feels quite at home. I see Bill Nichols almost every day. He has started his store at Norfolk, and people think he will do well. I hear of Billy Farrar and George Raynes but have not seen them, and probably shall not.

 

Your account of matters and things at the City Hotel is always agreeable. I have not lost my interest there yet. I should like to step in there and see what remains of the old crowd. I should think that your "little arrangement" / with Mrs. Holbrook, would be made, now that her regular supply is cut off. How does Watson flourish there now? And who is that Pollock, ask Alice, if you please, what his given name is. It seems to me that you and Mrs. Tucker are not so intimate as formerly; is it because that you have a large pressure from other quarters on your hands? I wish to know all about these things, and further more if you have "strayed" from the path of "strict rectitude" lately. Your general uprightness is well known, but to "step aside" once in a while is but human. I'm glad that you are bound to keep track of Kate Symonds for she will "put money in your purse". How is Mrs. Danforth? I've heard about her several times, since I've been here. Mrs. Messer's welfare too; and not to couple "whatsoever things are lovely" with whatsoever things are pure, but as an item of interest to me, where is the Widow? All these little items possess the same degree of interest now, that they did when we were where we could compare notes every Sunday night. I suppose you descend, with the same dignity and regularity, to your Sunday beans, that you observed, when I had the pleasure to partake of that wholesome dish beside you. / By the way, and it is an item that I've intended to make, the last two times I've written you, will you have the kindness to see if I am enrolled in Lowell. If I am not, I wish I was.

 

To make this letter valuable, I enclose to you some funds that I can't use now. The demand note, I wish you would dispose of immediately, as it is now worth 58 to 60 per cent premium, and if the bill authorizing Sec. Chase to sell gold paper, it will lose 20 or 25 pr ct. The draft on Wilder & Co. you can collect by Express. Their address is "Wilder & Co. Paper Dealers, Cor. Congress and Water St. Boston". If you will send me a memorandum note, for the balance due me in your hands after these are collected, I w'd like it; and when you can invest it in 5/20 bonds at three pr. ct premium you may do so, and I will return the note. I've lost the track of stocks now, can you post me any? I shall have five or six hundred dollars more from the West before March closes, and I wish to have it earning something. Have the kindness to acknowledge the receipt of this, and its contents, as soon as received. Also let me hear from you, in a long letter as soon as you can conveniently. Yours always,

                                               

Selwyn E. Bickford

 

[note attached to first page]

 

Feb 28. 1864.

I send you as follows.

Draft on W & Co.         250.00

Legal Tender Notes      500.00

Demand Note                  20.00

                                    $770.00

Fort Monroe.

            Va.

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