White Oak.
Oct. 19, 1861
Darling love sweet boy,
I have just received your dear, kind letter, written on the 16th, and sent by Nute Hull, and Mrs. Mozo has just informed me that Rich Lang [1] also came with him and would leave tomorrow so, as I will have a nice chance for sending my precious love a few lines, I must, and will, although I wrote him day before yesterday and the day before that too, but I suppose you have not received either. The last letter I wrote was to inform you that K. had carried a box of eatables (and a long letter was in that, to you), a bundle of blankets, and ten Pr of socks for the Camden Rifles, for you to divide among them, keeping of course the best for your dear self, and one bag of peas, but as the cars left a little while before I got to the depot, I wrote to Capt. H.T. Hall and asked him please to forward the afore said things to Lieut. N.A. Brown of the Camden Rifles as soon as possible, but I heard since then that the cars being so very full of soldiers, so precious love I am afraid the things will spoil before you get them. Capt. Wiggins [2] has at last arrived with our goods, so Tedd has been sent off with Bill and the cart to bring the three barrells. Hardee writes that the crush sugar [3] cost $13, the flour $8.50 and the rice $8.15 cents.
Lillie has brought her negroes from Brunswick out of the way of the Yankees, and has lone me Josie, for his feed, so I find an errand boy quite usefull. I only wish we had one about his size, and smartness. She says she hires John for $12 a month and that you can corlet and pay her once a month, or once in three months just as you please about it.
Oh! darling you speak of coming home on a visit, if you can get off, after you are removed to Big Cumberland. Nothing would give me more delight, except the end of the war, so my precious love can come home for good, to his own true wife and sweet little babe. For dearest I am almost crazy to see you again, so do please come just as soon as you can. If you can find a suitable place in St. Marys for me to stay for awhile, I would like much to accompany you back. Please darling if you don't come, write to, or send a message on one of my letters to beg Mamie [4] to come and spend the Winter with me, tell her how lonesome it will be for me while you are away, if some of the family won't come and keep me company, and as you have heard that her chamber has no fireplace you think It would be more comfortable for her and her children down here. Please insist upon it, or she won't come. She will think that it is imposing upon us in the war times, and precious love, I must have her, for it is so very lonesome down here without you, and you know it is esential for me to keep cheerful, and take plenty of exercise and if Mamie is with me I will feel much more like doing both. And then she is a good doctor, and can assist me so much in making up Eula's clothes. So darling, please beg her to come to me as soon as it turns cool. You know there are only two fireplaces at Thorn Hall and Ma has one, Lillie has the other. Aunty has not gone yet is waiting for frost. She and each of the others always send love to you when they know that I am writing, so you may have it now.
Your Mother heard from sister Carrie [5] day before yesterday. She and her little boy had been sick but were better. She wanted to know what had become of her dear brother, Nate, said she had not heard from him but once since he had enlisted for the war. You ought to write to her sometimes. Don't my boy think so?
Lillie got a long letter from Annie Atkinson the other day. She says her mother expects to come down sometimes this Winter, to stay a short time I suppose. The children will remain up there. I suppose Capt. Atkinson [6] has given out his trip up the country. I think he had better, for the people all think very strange of his going such a time as this, so far for such a length of time. Mr. James Taylor's family have been and are now down with fever from colds, so says Mrs. Mozo. After dinner Mr. Reddick will go over and see what he can do for them. I would go myself but think Mr. Reddick would better know how to treat their cases.
In you last you said you expected $200 by Mr. Mathews which you would send by the first opportunity for your father and me. I got Mr. Mumford [7] to get $100 from him when he passed through Waynesville. Must I give your father half of that? Please write and let me know, or come and tell me.
Last Monday Miss Bell and Kate Gould and Josie Morton promised to come and spend several days, but as Miss Bell was sick in bed at the time Kate could not come alone, and Josie wrote me as brothers Camble and St. Clair had been stationed in Waynesville she could not think of leaving for at least two weeks, until she got used to their being there. Did you ever in you life hear of such an excuse? Now if she had had a dear husband in the company or it the 'dear brothers' had been absent for years and she had not seen them in the mean time then she would have been excusable.
Hopkins sends 12 of his men out scouting every day and they generally scout home or where else they want. All send much love to my own fond Nate Goodbye.
Your own
Loulie
P.S. Eula joins me in a sweet kiss to her darling precious papa and begs him please to hurry home, he want petting and no one can do it so well as her papa. By the by she had received several nice presents lately among them 3 calico frocks from Grandma Nicholes. Aunt Mamie and Lillie have also given her some things. Good bye. Your fond
Loulie.
[1] Rich Lang - from the on-line Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865: Richard Lang Private in Nate's company Aug 5, 1861. Enlisted as a private in Co. 4th Regt. Ga Cavalry (Clinch's) May 21, 1862. Roll for June 30 1864 shows him present, no later record. Roll for June 30. 1864 shows him on picket duty
[2] Capt. Joseph Sinclair Wiggins, Wayne Rangers (1830-1874); he married an older sister, Sarah Louise Morton (1829-1893) of Josephine Morton who married Loulie's brother Henry, and he is buried in Wiggins Cemetery in Waynesville Ga
[3] crush sugar - sugar derived from crushing sugar cane
[4] Mamie - she is mentioned often in the letters, and Nate's letter of 20 Sept. 1864 refers to his sister Mary - on the reverse he penned a letter to Loulie saying that he was ' giving you a copy of Mamie's letter'; however there is no record of Nate having a sister named Mary.
[5] sister Carrie - must be Nate's older sister Caroline (1828 - 1887), she married Henry Copeland (1825-1889) and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Thomasville, Ga.
[6} Capt. Atkinson - from the on-line Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865: Alexander Smith Atkinson, captain of Nate's company from Aug. 5 1861 to Oct. 22, 1822; and the son of Nate's 'old cousin' Edmund Atkinson. Captain Alexander Atkinson, a brother of the gallant Colonel Edmund N. Atkinson in the C.S.A, was born in 1836 and graduated at Franklin College about 1856. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He entered the Confederate Army early in 1861 and was elected to command the Quitman Guards, an infantry company attached to his brother's regiment. He was wounded in one of the battles in Virginia so severely that he was discharged from the service. He died at Black Hammock in 1912. (Source: History of Camden County Georgia by James T. Vocelle, 1914)
[7] Mr. Mumford - most likely Sylvester Mumford (1810-1883) and his wife Theresa Elizabeth Tison Mumford (1820 - 1881) interred in the Mumford Family Cemetery (Mumford Plantation) in Camden County. 'The Mumford house was constructed in 1848 by Sylvester Mumford who moved south to open a store to cater to the crowds that visited the mineral springs bathouses in Waynesville during that town's heyday....Sylvester Mumford came to Waynesville from New York State when he was just a young man. The early 1800s were years of growth, and it was a time for pioneers of the land and in the businesses that would serve these settlers. Before Sylvester Mumford could get into his business, however, he met and fell in love with Miss Theresa Tison, a sister to a Mr. John M. Tison. Sylvester and Theresa were married. He erected a general merchandise in Waynesville, then a bustling community handling the bustling affairs of the large Wayne County. As county seat, it offered many opportunities for a young merchant. Mr. Tison, by the way, had opened a similar concern in Bethel (Georgetown). Since no railroads existed at this time, dry goods were brought up from Brunswick in sailboats on Turtle River, first to Bethel and then to Waynesville by ox cart,...'
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabrantl/mumford.html
The Mumford House in Waynesboro - is this the 'White Cottage' Loulie stayed in with Mrs. Mumford? (Letter 26)