Thorn Hall
Nov. 15
My own precious love,
Although I sent you a letter a day or two ago, yet I must write again this holy day. I say holy because so many prayers will ascend to Almighty God, throughout the Southern Confederacy, to thank him for the victories we have gained, and to plead for more, and for piece to be restored to our unhappy land. Darling their will be many prayers offered up for you, to day so you must try to join us in them. I trust no enemy will disturb your pieceful Island so that your thoughts may be directed aright.
I hear that the troops have been taken off Jakel [1], and Gen. Mercer wants them off St. Simons, but Col. Styles won't let them come. I always thought that a Gen. could make a Col. obey him and hope it will be so in this instance, for Edman or his brother, wrote Miss Satilla that they preferred remaining on the Island but expected either to be killed or taken prisoners. I would a great rather hear that you all were fighting on the mainland and sincerely hope before this reaches you that you will be in or about Brunswick; there is where we want soldiers on the Buffaloo [2] where they can hide in ambush and kill the wretches as they come on the land.
I carried your bundle and Witter's box to Waynesville on Tuesday to send down, but there was such a stir among the Brunswickites that I concluded to wait until they got through moving, so yesterday, Thursday, Lillie and I went to Waynesville to get the news, and see the Royalls (who have moved or rather are moving up to Mrs. Riley's old Summer place, one mile from Waynesville). Well as we found the town W. quiet, though full of sick soldiers, we concluded B. must be too, so had your things shipped on last night's train, hope you will get them today.
But now dearest my principle reason for writing you this morning is to get you to corlect John's wages from those men, and send it, or bring it, to Mr. Marlin the poast master and beg him to send it by the first safe opportunity he has to Mr. Mumford with the request that he will hand it to Mrs. Gignillia or any of us.
I write you for this, because, Lillie expects to leave as soon as she can get off with her children, and negroes for Warrenton [3] and will need the money to help pay their expenses up there. Fannie and Rosa will go at the same time to Louisville [4] where Aunty is, and go to school to Mis Stervenson.
Tell Witter Aunty writes us that Jane Cane has a baby, and is Witter's sweetheart.
I got my carpet from Sav. the first of the week am very sorry I bought it now, don't expect to open it until things are more settled. I have just returned from church. Pa conducted the meeting by the request of Mr. David Lang. We had many good prayers offered up to day and you poor soldiers on St. Simons were remembered. I wonder if any of you were helping us to pray.
I suppose you heard of Mr. Anderson's return to Savannah from Europe [5], he brought a great many guns, blankets etc. for our Confederate States. He saw none of the Lincon Blockcadering vessels about Sav. There is a Lieut. Lang in Waynesville very ill, a son of Mr. Nat Lang. I suppose you know him.
Please precious darling write very soon to your own little
Loulie.
P.S. I am so very glad that you all are off the Island I don't know what to do. All join me in much love to you and Witter. Your mother and father were out at church and were quite well. Eula sends a sweet kiss to her dear papa and begs him to come off the Island. Write us very soon. I have just heard that you have been brought from the Island.
[1] Jekyll Island, at 5,700 acres, is the smallest of Georgia's barrier islands. The island is located in Glynn County, just southeast of the city of Brunswick, south of St. Simons Island, and north of Cumberland Island. The western side of Jekyll Island is fronted by Jekyll Creek and salt marsh, and the eastern edge of the island is defined by its beach and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1792 it was purchased by the Sapelo Company, which was made up of four French landowners, among them Christophe Poulain DuBignon. By 1800 the island was completely owned by DuBignon. He and his descendants were the principal owners of the island until 1886, with agriculture as the primary activity on the island. Although the U.S. government had banned the importation of slaves in 1808, the smuggling of slaves continued. On November 29, 1858, during a storm, the Wanderer, owned by Savannah businessman Charles Lamar, unloaded its cargo of 409 slaves on Jekyll. This was one of the last cargoes of slaves imported into the United States. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/jekyll-island
[2] Buffaloo - I don't know what this is. There is a Buffalo Creek running into the Satilla River west of Long Bluff. Eastern herds of buffalo were common in the Southeast until they were hunted to extinction. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/indian-trails.
[3] Warrenton, the seat of Warren County, is located in east central Georgia on the edge of the southern Piedmont, forty-six miles west of Augusta and forty-seven miles northeast of Milledgeville. It is situated at the intersection of U.S. Highway 278 and Georgia highways 16 and 80. The county and town were both named for Joseph Warren, a Massachusetts physician and patriot who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War (1775-83).
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/warrenton
[4] Louisville, the county seat of Jefferson County, also served as Georgia's third capital from 1796 until 1807. ……The Civil War (1861-65) put Louisville in the path of Union general William T. Sherman's March to the Sea in late 1864. Although Louisville escaped the brunt of the destruction that took place in other Georgia communities, Federal troops set fire to several houses, the jail, and the courthouse, in addition to ransacking private homes. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/louisville
[5] 'On the night of November 11, 1861, a daring Confederate blockade-runner, Edward C. Anderson, escaped under Union eyes and piloted his ship, the Fingal, into the port of Savannah. A native of Savannah, Anderson was the first of many who attempted to assist the Confederate cause by breaking through the Union's extensive coastal blockade, which stretched from Virginia to Florida. However, in Georgia none would match Anderson's success. The landing of Enfield rifles and cannons, as well as sabers and military uniforms, at the state's major port marked the high tide of the South's ability to penetrate the North's naval forces stationed along the Georgia shore.'
From an article by James H. Welborn, University of Georgia and Richard Houston, University of Georgia,
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/union-blockade-and-coastal-occupation-civil-war