#8 Fort Atkinson
Cumberland Island
Sept. 8th (1861)
My own precious wife,
Your letter was brought to me on yesterday from Brunswick by Col. Styles [1], who paid us a flying visit of only half an hour to see if we were prepared to meet the enemy. He is exceedingly indignant with Gen. Lawton [2] for his gross neglect of duty in not sending us our cannon and says, if Lawton does not have them here in three days, he will take us from this place, and put us on Big Cumberland Island. We are expecting an attack daily and every man is on the alert to see who will see the 'Fleet' [3] first; Col. Styles says he thinks we will have a fight in less than ten days unless some providential interference prevents them from landing. We are very much opposed to leaving this place; for we can from this point cooperate with both St. Simons [4] and Big Cumberland [5] Batteries in a fight; and then at the same time defend our own homes. Col. S. thinks we hold the most important post on the coast. 'You see' if we are removed from this point the enemy can land at Brunswick or St. Marys without going in gunshot of the batteries on the Islands. Gov. Brown will pay us a visit on Monday or Tuesday when we will have a shower of all the big officers on the coast. They are going around inspecting our batteries and reviewing the
companies. Now darling I have told you all the news on the Island, and now will have a little private chat with my darling wife and our sweet little 'Eula'. You must tell her she must be a good little girl and not bother Mamma while Papa is off from home. I have just returned from prayer meeting. Mr. Patterson gave us a splendid prayer and oh darling! I did with all my heart ask the Kind Ruler (that looks over the destinies of all) to keep watch over, be with, and guard my darling wife from all danger. I don't know when we will meet again as Col. S. won't consent to let you come on the Island and has issued orders not to let any one go home till he finds out where 'Lincoln's fleet' is bound for. So my pet 'you see' it was very well that your Father stopped you. Darling, what would be your first thoughts if you could be transferred from your bed at twelve o'clock on Sunday night to a lonely and desolate Island (where nothing is seen, or heard, but the furious wave as it lashes itself against the rock with an unbroken roar except the wild shriek of the startled 'Gull' occasionally interspersed with a loud challenge of a sentinel, who reminds some loitering soldier that he is intruding on forbidden ground) to see your own darling boy, seated on a box with a pen writing to his lovely little jewel who is more lovely to him all the world besides? Oh! Loulie I have never all my life before wanted to see you so much as now. I am officer of the day and am compelled to sit up till 2 o'clock to attend to the duties of my office. Every man in camp save me, has long since paid his respects to the land of 'Nod'. Darling sweet wife: when will we meet again; oh! how I do hope and pray that Lincoln and all of his vile horde of followers may get killed for separating us so long. If things hold on as they are we may not meet again for months, but do darling pet take good care of your darling little self for you know if you should get sick and die that life would forever be a burden to me, and my only happiness would consist in praying that I too might follow my angel wife. And then little 'Eula' too. What would become of the joyous anticipation of being presented with the darling little Angel, so please wife if you won't for my sake take care of your darling self for Eula's. It is almost time for me to go the grand rounds and inspect the sentinels so I will have to close. Give my best love to your Father and Mother, Mrs. G. P. Fanny, Rosa, Witter, Henry, Aunty and all the children, and when you go home you must kiss Ma for me and love to Pa. Tell them I am quite well in fact camp life agrees with me so well that I am actually getting fat. You may tell them if I should get into a fight with the enemy they will hear a good report from their boy. I don't think they will ever blush with shame to hear my name mentioned if I have a chance at a part of 'Mr. Linkhoun's' fleet. In fact I know they won't if I am as mad with them when on the field of battle as I am tonight. I expect my darling you think I will never end this letter; but 'you see' I have no one to talk to so my heart naturally turns to hold sweet communion with its little treasure, you know the Bible says 'where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.' Goodbye my sweet-loved one; may Heaven's sweetest blessings ever attend you is the fond prayer of your own darling boy.
Nate.
[1] Col. Styles - Carey Wentworth Styles (1825–1897), newspaperman, was born on October 7, 1825, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the son of Gabriel B. Styles, an up-country planter. He volunteered as fourth sergeant in the Palmetto Regiment during the Mexican War and served in Mexico in Company D, commanded by Capt. Preston S. Brooks. He was admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1850. On November 23, 1852, he and Frances (or Fannie) Jean Evans, daughter of John and Frances Evans of Fayetteville, North Carolina, were married. To them a daughter, Louella Styles Vincent, who became a poet, composer, Chautauqua lecturer, and journalist, was born on September 5, 1853. In 1856 the couple moved from Fayetteville to Georgia. During the Civil War Styles reached the rank of colonel, and after the war he promoted a direct rail line between Augusta and Columbia. In Georgia he founded the Atlanta Constitution, one of the South's outstanding newspapers. He was subsequently owner of two Texas newspapers and served on the editorial staffs of at least six others.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fst85
[2] Gen. Lawton - Alexander Robert Lawton (November 4, 1818 – July 2, 1896) was a lawyer, politician, diplomat, and brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Lawton favored Georgia's secession and became colonel of the 1st Georgia Volunteers. He commanded the Savannah troops that seized Fort Pulaski, the first conflict of the war in Georgia. He was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on April 13, 1861, and commanded the forces guarding Georgia's seacoast before being reassigned to Virginia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lawton
[3] Lincoln's Fleet - 'The battle between ship and shore on the coast of Confederate Georgia was a pivotal part of the Union strategy to subdue the state during the Civil War (1861-65). U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's call at the start of the war for a naval blockade of the entire Southern coastline took time to materialize, but by early 1862, under Union general Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan," the Union navy had positioned a serviceable fleet off the coast of the South's most prominent Confederate ports. In Georgia, Union strategy centered on Savannah, the state's most significant port city. Beyond Savannah, Union forces generally focused on securing bases of operation on outlying coastal islands to counter Confederate privateers. Confederate defensive strategy, in turn, evolved with the Union blockade. After the fall of Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861, Confederate president Jefferson Davis appointed General Robert E. Lee to reorganize Confederate coastal defenses. Lee quickly realized the impossibility of defending the entire coastline and decided to consolidate limited Confederate forces and materiel at key strategic points. He countered Union naval superiority by ensuring easy reinforcement of Confederate coastal positions along railroad lines. '
From: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/union-blockade-and-coastal-occupation-civil-war
[4] St. Simons Island - an island just to the northeast of Jekyll Island. Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. …The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/st-simons-island
[5] Cumberland Island: Sea island to the south of Jekyll Island. 'Between 1765 and 1769 thirteen Georgians received the first land grants on Cumberland. These tracts became the fifteen plantations and small farms cultivated by slave labor during the nineteenth century. …..Although before 1800 Cumberland was almost uninhabited, by 1860 more than 500 slaves resided there in a black-to-white ratio of seven to one. At the end of the Civil War (1861-65), military authorities placed Cumberland within the Sherman Reservation, a thirty-mile-wide land reserve running the length of the Georgia–South Carolina coast. It was established (1865-66) as a reservation for freedmen to receive land of their own….. As the forest disappeared, new fields were cleared for cotton. Superior grades grown from Sea Island seed were eagerly sought by brokers from northern U.S. states and England. Sea Island cotton thread had a tensile strength almost equal to modern nylon, making it valuable for the gigantic high-speed looms of nineteenth-century manufactories.' http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/