Lancaster, Wis Feb 16^th 1909

L. W. Hopkins

833 Calbert Bldg Baltimore Md                    

 

This envelope opened because sealed before I put the order for $1.¹⁰ in

 

                        Dear Sir,                                                                                                                                            

  Yours of the 10^th inst received a few days since. "Bull Run to Appomattox" was partly & hastily read the day it was received, and read somewhat as girls do novels—When I take it up I expect to read & annotate it with a map before me.

 

            I saw a reference to it in "The National Tribune" of Washington D.C. It might take me two or three hours to read over or look over a half dozen numbers & I assure you I have not time to day. I will try and bear it in mind & if I find the reference. I have been so busy for some months that I could not possibly read all of the "Tribunes" as received. I picked up one one day, saw the notice & wrote you.

 

Enclosed find money order for $1.¹⁰ I am well pleased with the book & wish to have many more of the same sort in my library.

 

A man living in Oklahoma who was with Stonewall / Jackson wrote his experiences that I should have received but did not. I shall commence to hunt him up.

 

            My father run away from England when only about 14 years old. eventually became a merchant in augusta Ga, accumulated some money married my mother who inherited about 16 slaves He would not have any interest in a slave. When Illinois was an Indian Country started there. Mother brought with her all the slaves that would come without a pass & freed them. Sold those who preferred not to come. She was an abolitionist out & out and so trained all her children. She always had family prayers. The negroes were expected to attend as well as all the whites of the family. Slaves were frequently taken past our house in Illinois to Missouri—some times I was told chained together. My mother had her slaves that had come to Illinois educated.

 

            The crash of 1837 wiped out fathers property and Mothers too and left us destitute. We went to Missouri where men raised negroes for the market, as they do now hogs & cattle.

 

When we grew up I went back to Illinois & then here & two of my brothers went South, one to Texas & one to Missippi, one other to California. all were died in the wool abolitionists. that is we was bitterly opposed to slavery & to catching slaves for any one—I would not have given him the elective franchise. I would have given him the proceeds of his own labor & made him obey the law. /

 

We were all miserably poor, destitute. The brother in California was badly crippled. The brother in Texas had a farm about 320 acres improved somewhat & stocked, had a wife & 7 children. The press gang called and gave him 20 minutes to pick out his horse, saddle it & get his gun & go with them. He eventually died somewhere, but no one knows where. The brother in Missippi had become a respectable physician had a good house wife & children near Vicksburg. he refused to shoulder a gun but went into the medical department & returned home in a few months to die. The widows both soon died & the children lost everything. I was the youngest of the family though now 84. After the war I joind the Texas family & dug them out of the ashes at a cost of at least $2000⁰⁰ and raised three of them am now trying to help the children & grand children of my brother who died in Missippi—and may go to Oklahoma to help them in a few months I enlisted about Apr 13 1861. was with M^cClellan and the Army of the Potomac till after the battle of Chancellorsville / was promoted to a Captaincy eventually to a Colonelcy in early part of 1865 & mustered out in June 1866 as Colonel of the 50^th Wis Inf

 

When coming home in June 1866 with my regiment in command I passed through that part of the state where I lived 21 years before a raged day laborer! The train delayed nearly one day near my old home but I could not find a man I ever knew. That terrible maelstrom had swamped them all out How often I wandered around among the dead & wounded & prisoners to see if I could find either of my brothers: but I never found even an acquaintance except of our own troops.

 

            I differ with you greatly as to M^cClellan He was a good disciplinarian & utterly unfit to command or lead in battle. No one ever heard of his leading in battle or being exposed. I was at Williamsburg & saw a great deal of the battles around Richmond. Was detailed by him near Richmond in /62 and have reason to believe that he was never where he ought to have been nor when he ought to have been. I knew he was away when the battles were fought on the first two days & I think on the next two days and again when the battle of White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill was fought—On a "gun boat" is a poor place to fight infantry, miles away—

 

            Please excuse this hasty scratching.

                                                Truly yours                 John G Clark /

 

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My friend—I and four others in 1853 organised the Republican party in this county, the first in the U.S.—The ultra abolitionists now rule all Southern people. During Nov & December 1853 we ruled out quite a number who were too ultra Had Lincoln lived only about 1/40 of the negroes would have received the elective franchise & all would have been made to behave themselves. As for miscegenation I never knew or heard of a mulatto being born in Wisconsin.

 

So far I disagree with you except only on M^cClellan I was under him and know where he was a failure.

 

Such books as you wrote gave us a better insight into how people lived fought died suffered than any history I ever read. Roosevelts books are generally facts gathered from books written by participants in the scenes who detailed facts just as they occurred and are readable. I wish I had many more—

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