|
Letter from William J. Simpson of Co. G - 7th South Carolina Cavalry with two other family documents. One is an estate listing of another member of his family - no doubt his father, A. Simpson - deceased, listing the value of real estate and 6 slaves by the names of Zac (?), Jackson, Ned, Jenny, Arole & Levy. This document is undated and is in very good condition. The other document is a receipt dated March 14, 1860 to William J. Simpson for the Probate and recording for the guardian of Charles C. Simpson - a minor (and no doubt William's brother). The letter is fantastic an is when William is in the 7th S.C. Cavalry writing to Charles. It is written in period pencil and is light - especially on the first page, but is legible and well written.I have photographed the entire letter for reading - hopefully that can be done on the computer. It is dated on July 17, 1864 and written from Malvern Hill. Some of the highlights are: " ...quiet for the last two weeks. The Yanks have pretty well all quit this side of the river and gone over to the south side. The gunboats gives us some trouble in our camp at times. Yesterday they threw about 50 shells into & around our camp. The shells were about the size and shape of a tin ______(?) and would weigh at least 100 pounds. We had to saddle up and move back about 2 miles until they quit shelling. Our camp is 3 miles from the river and they can through (sic) a shell into our camp any time they please. They can through (sic) one of those shells 6 miles. They can place a boat in the river at Crafts Ferry & through (sic) a shell over to Good Hope Church with a good deal of correctness if they knew the corse(sic) and distance so you may know what danger we are in when we are anywhere near the river ..." He goes on to say that he feels sorry for the people that live along the river with the children playing and at any time a shell might fall & kill them. He then writes " I would not have you where they are one day for the whole Confederacy ... I have not such hopes now for an early peace ... I saw Bowie McLees the other day ... he belongs to Orr's regiment ... Arch Sandler I expect is gone to Washington with Early. If he has, he will have a lively time sure ... 6 yankee deserters came up to our picket post this morning and gave themselves up, they were all irishmen, right fresh from new york ... they say their men still think they will take Richmond this month ... well Charles I am getting powerful tired of this war & would give evrything I have to stop it ... when you set down to write a letter you may not get three lines written till a courrier comes in and says the yankees are advancing, when we have to get up & go down & fight them. This is one reason why our letters are so scattering & void of interest & when we have been out all day riding hard and fighting we come back to camp an hour or two after dark hungery and tired, we eat a piece of cold corn bread & raw meat & go to bed perhaps in one hour to go through the same routine of business again.". Again, the letter is full of great content but is in pencil and is light. All three pieces for the price. |
|
