lady Klineman is dead and so is the old lady Storment, one of the oldest women of Gibson County.

 

                        So for myself I have something to say. I am liveing now on the old place where you used to live. I have been here nearly two months There is a very comfortable house on the place, and I have set down here for a few months to come, perhaps for some time longer. Dear Joe you don't know how I felt when I took a stroll once more here and visited the scenes of our early adventures and sports. The old house is torn away: but the peach and apple trees are there. The young trees you planted west of the house still remain in part. They do not look thrifty. I sat down upon the charred stump of the hickory that stood before the door and / wept when I remembered the Past with its happiness and its hopes its ambitions schemes, and glorious dreams, faded and gone, alas forever. I could see yonder the old meadow the scene of a thousand gambols and sports, the trees into which we climbed, the branch that ran from the spring, could trace the track of the old lane that ran by the stables and down across to the bars over the creek; and the deep muddy creek out south where we once essayed the bath, and retired from the attempt defeated in our ablutions.

 

                        It is impossible for me to recount to you the melancholy feelings of such a moment, how all the images of the Past were once more set up before me and I saw and felt with a mournful sad kind of pleasure the same scenes and the same joys that once / we viewed and partook of together. Memory was busy with the checkered Past, and once more I retraced the path our feet had trodden together over the wreck of ruined years, obscured by the weeds of sorrow, the nightshade of the soul that springs up in an hour of darkness.

 

                        Alas thought I how mournful are those memories that come up from the vast charnel house of our hearts idols They were liveing breathing thought and sentiment then, now nothing is left but the skeleton shadow, a sad memorial of the futility the vanity of earthly hopes Dead are they, but their works do follow them, and in remembering them we revisit the green oases of the spirits desert, and drink once more at the fountain of youth /

 

                        Again my country engaged my thoughts I thought of her condition then and now How together we gloried in her power and prosperity and dwelt with pride upon her renown among the nations, reviewed her Past together, sorrowed in her sorrows, struggled in her struggles and rejoiced in her triumphs, contemplated her Present and made her the idol of our hearts, till they swelled with love for her rocks and rills, her vales and hills. mount and plain all her vast domain was all our own, to love as our Country. Her Future and ours before it was bright to us, bright with the glory that surrounds the riseing sun, to us as permanent as the rock ribed earth we trod

 

                        A few years have passed. Where now is our Country. Behold her torn and rent by intestine / convulsion, the prey of civil war, the hapless victim of a mad and reckless ambition. Mourning in all her borders, weeping and wailing in her habitations Her hearthstones washed by the tears of the loved ones who wait through the long, long weary day as they weep through the shades of night for the return of the father husband son brother and lover. Aye weeping to for those who shall return no more, for they have been offered up on the field of battle their countrys altar, as a sacrifice for the preservation of Liberty

 

                        But we turn from such contemplations to a hopeful expectation of that world that is to come. There hopes shall be lost only in their ultimate realization There there shall be no more partings, no more wars nor striveings, tears shall be wiped away. In that country there shall be no more Secession, for from that kindom of peace / the Devil and his anjels have long been driven.

 

                        Mary and I have been very anxious concerning you, for it has been reported that you was dead, but I happened to meet one of your comrades Cornelius Clifford who told me that he thought that such was not the fact, and then we felt that we had yet some hope of seeing you.

 

                        You had better believe that there was an excitement at the time of the great battle. Every body was going to town for the news, and nobody was satisfied with what they heard. Daily papers commanded a fabulous price, with good Union men. Secesh sympathizers wasn't very anxious for the news, when they heard how the battle was going, or had gone The news of a fight is a good Secephometer Some faces are widened that is the mouth expands from ear to ear, / others are elongated, to a most prodigious degree I can tell you how those gentry talk

 

                        Says H— to A, B, C, &c sinful battle. A replies "great victory'. H— Shocking loss of life, A— Considerable loss to be sure, it seems like conquering the rebellion though

H         Wars are horrible most unchristianlike, are the cause of untold miseries to any nation.

A         Yes that is true but there is something worse than war,

H         Whats that.

A         Why the loss of principles, the surrender of the Constitution and our lives & liberties into the hands of a mob or of a despotism.

B         Yes that is to secessionists

H         Well this fuss might have been settled without all this bloodshed damn the Abolitionists, they have ruined the Country and destroyed the Constitution. We have no government, /

A—It looks like we have no government from the army it sends out. If we had what kind of a show do you think we could have made.

B—It seems we have first rate credit to have no government. I tell you Mr H Uncle Sam aint dead, and his hemp patch is being broke up this spring by God sir

H—Ahem

C—Who do you call Abolitionists that have ruined the Country &c

H—Why those agitators in Congress that talk about abolishing slavery

C—Why good Democrats talk about that as a final resort. if nothing else will do

H—No Sir Just look at old Abes emancipation message

A         Well what of it

H         Well a good deal of it shows the tone and the wishes of the government at Washington, and—

C         High there, I thought we hadn't any government.

H         Well I said so because other people say so. But what did you mean by Uncle Sams "hemp patch", you didn't allude to the prisoners taken in the late Battles did you

C—I did that.

H         What! hang prisoners of War! How cruel! how inhuman! how unchristianlike! horrible!

C         Yes! Hang theives robbers villians murders to be sure I would, and I meant more than that.

H         What?

C         I by God Id hang the men that dont want them hung.... /

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