Handsboro Miss                     

June 23^thd 1864

           

My Dear Brother

                                    Your letter of the 1^fst was but a recompense for the pain which your long negligence caused me that your silance so long mantained would have been a source of anxiety to me even had you remained in Mobile could not have been a secret to you & to say it was doubly so when I was so well aware that you were daily nay even hourly exposed to death in its most horrible form would but faintly express the agony that half filled my heart. You left Mobile without one word to let me know that were gone & where the first I heard of your having gone to Georgia was through the kindness of Maj Pullen thus I learned that an almost entire stranger was more kind than my own much loved Brother & / for this act of kindness I shall ever regard Maj P— with friendship. to his thoughtfullness too I am indebted for the copy of "Macaria" for which I wrote to you, when I gave him the letter I asked him not to let you forget to send it and as you were not in Mobile he sent it. & I assure you it infliated a deep wound in my heart to find that a stranger would be so much more thoughtfull of me than you were. I know not what you may think of me but this I must tell you your neglecting me will tend much towards lessning my love for you for I will not be content to occupy a lower place in your affections than has been hithertofore mine. no other love need interfear with mine. I dearly love your betrothed wife & think it as your duty to write her every opportunity but for no other will I submit quietly to be considered secondary. Your excuse that you have not time does not satisfy me, nor do I wish you to make any excuse whatever. You wrote to Jennie / of haveing formed the acquaintance of a Miss Ford & during your very short acquaintance you promise not only to visit but become a correspondent of hers now honestly do you think you acted right or even the part of a gentleman. I think you did not you are betrothed & consequently not free to flirt even though it be in jest to me as well as to others it is evident that you made an impression on the young lady's heart & she is either a very imprudent or very inocent girl & in either case the part you have acted is quite unworthy of my brother. You would have thought it a crime had your Sister or any lady of whom you think anything been guilty of such an imprudence. that girl may have a Brother to whom she is very dear & would not approve of this act of his Sister's as little as you would. I advise you to discontinue this acquaintance as it is the cause of more unhappyness than it has already caused. I am jalous my / dear Brother but it is of my Brothers honor & my dear Sisters happeness; if I have spoken plainly & have thereby wounded your feelings I am sorry for it but not for what I considered it my duty to say.

 

                                    Jennie writes today and I suppose will write all the news & it would be useless for me to reitterate & I know that her letters are much more eagarly expected & consequently much more valuable than mine & news written in hers would be stale were I to repeat it. I suppose you have learned that Sister Lizzie has been very ill but it was much better on the 17^th of this month. I am glad to hear that Willie is so well satisfied & has learned to behave himself so much better than usual. I learned through Lt. Jeter's last letter that Willie was a drummer in Co "D" does he equal your expectations. I believe Mama is better satisfied to have him a drummer than a private I am not but my likes & dislikes have not been asked & I suppose it will be considered an

 

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impertinance for me to express them especially by Master Will & if he is content why should I care I must feel some interest in his fate but he has by his own hand sent every particle of love & [paper hole] feeling for him from my heart & ere he left I absolutely hated him but now I do not feel to bitterly but enough of this I know not why it was ever mentioned.

 

Write soon to

Yours Affectionately

Sis

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