# 7
Thorn Hall
Aug. 9
My dearest treasure
You can't imagine how much I suffer in mind on account of not hearing from you, so please if there is any possible chance of your writing just a few lines, do, please, for heaven sake, let me hear, as soon as possible.
Henry has just informed me that you have not received any cannons on the Island. I do think that that is a real shame, and precious, if the enemy should come while you are in such a fix I do hope instead of
your company remaining to be made prisoners of, that you all will retreat before they get there so that you can join some other place where you can fight. I expect they will need your company in Brunswick [1]. It will be perfect nonsense for your hand full of men to remain on the Island without something to fight with. Your cousin Edman (the old man) [2] says in about two weeks that the Yankees will be down upon you and will take you all prisoners.
The people in Brunswick are getting very much frighten and are moving up to Waynesville [3]. But my darling if you do not think there is any danger I will get Jinnie, Tom and Connie to go with me to Black Hammock [4] and there go across in cousin (old) Edman's boat. I expect I could get Tedd and Uncas [5] to carry us across.
Please write and let me know if I can come. We could not have gone down on the cars [6] the other day if we wanted to for they do not leave Waynesville until 6 o'clock in the evening and would of course get there entirely too late for the boat and Jinnie did not come before Saturday so that was a day too late. The cars run every day now, I mean leave Brunswick every morning and return every evening.
Henry goes down to Brunswick this evening or rather in a few minutes so you must not look for a long letter. If they are forming a horse regiment, he will join in Brunswick and so will Witter [7], if not I expect they go to Liberty [8].
They are expecting Gov. Brown [9] down there today. So I hope he will look in to matters and set things to rights.
Do precious love write me as soon as you can. Henry will be in Brunswick until Thursday so if you can get a letter there by then he will bring it to
Your own little wife, Loulie
Good by dearest write very soon.
[1] Brunswick - Port city south of Savannah and north of St. Marys. Jekyll and St. Simons Islands are just to the east of Brunswick. In 1771 the Council of the Royal Colony of Georgia laid out a plan for Brunswick similar to that of Savannah, namely, a grid of streets punctuated by a series of parks and squares. The town was named after the duchy of Brunswick (Germany), the ancestral home of King George III and the British House of Hanover. In 1797 Brunswick replaced Frederica, the first settlement on St. Simons Island, as the seat of Glynn County, one of eight original counties created by the Georgia legislature in 1777.
[2] Nate's 'old cousin Edman' must be Edmund Atkinson (1804 - 1862) thus he was 55 at the time this letter was written. In the letters his name is spelled Edman or Edmond, but his family spelled it Edmumd. He was son of Nathan Atkinson, who settled in Camden County, Ga, in 1785, residing in Black Hammock, and had four children, John, Alexander, Nancy (who married William Lang in 1820) and Edmund. Although a practicing lawyer, Edmund Atkinson had an intense interest in agriculture and enjoyed life on his plantation so much that he was frequently seen heading homeward. Eventually the plantation became "Homeward" according to the family. http://www.atkinson-family.us/edmund.htm
[3] Waynesville - In 1856 the residents of Wayne County, a county in southeast Georgia just inland from the coast, voted for Waynesville as their seat of government, and it remained the seat until after the Civil War (1861-65). Waynesville was the closest town to the cotton and rice plantations along the Satilla River. Named after Revolutionary War Hero, General "Mad" Anthony B. Wayne, Waynesville is located near the old Post Road which is the dividing line between the counties of Brantley and Glynn.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gabrantl/waynesville-home.html
[4] Black Hammock plantation, Dover Bluff - NE end of Camden. At the mouth of the Little Satilla River in Hazzards Neck. 500 acres was granted to John Tompkins in the late 1700s. Part became a plantation. Nathan Atkinson acquired the plantation in 1800 and it was left to his children, John, Alexander, Nancy, and Edmund, at his death in 1817.
Photo of Black Hammock Plantation House. White Oak and Thorn Hall houses were likely similar, not nearly as grand as the plantation mansions depicted in movies.
Photo from http://www.atkinson-family.us/blackham.htm
[5] Uncas must be the same negro referred to in son Nathan Brown's letter of 1936, in which he describes a visit with his mother and two sisters to the old family home in White Oak when he was a little boy, sometime in the 1870's.
[6] cars - here Loulie refers to the main form of long distance travel in the mid-19th century - trains. from http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/central-georgia-railway 'The Central of Georgia Railway was one of the most significant railroads in the American South and a vital part of Georgia's transportation infrastructure for more than 100 years….. the line reached from Savannah to the outskirts of Macon by 1843. …. expanded in the 1840s and 1850s, with direct ownership and indirect control of lines that reached to Atlanta and Columbus, and into southwest Georgia. With tracks that passed through some of the most productive cotton lands in the state, the Central was a vital element in the antebellum Georgia economy. During the Civil War (1861-65) the Central remained operational and served Confederate military, manufacturing, and economic objectives until the summer of 1864, when Union forces began a systematic destruction of bridges, track, and rolling stock. Images of "Sherman's bowties," the term for pieces of rail heated and then twisted around Georgia trees, have become part of the iconography of General William T. Sherman's destructive march to the sea.'
[7] Witter must be Louisa's brother, Thomas Witter Nicholes (1844-1918). From the on-line Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865: Witter T. Nicholes enlisted as a Private Sept. 15, 1861 in Nate's company. Absent, sick April 30, 1862. Enlisted as a private in Co. 4th Regt. Ga Cavalry (Clinch's) Dec 39, 1863. Roll for June 30 1864 shows him present, no later official record, but a letter of Nate's dated Sept. 20 1864 says that Witter is with him and is health is very good. He married Sarah Elizabeth Smith (1843-1929) and is buried in the Marietta City Cemetery, Cobb County GA.
[8] …go to Liberty - not sure what this means. Liberty County, just south of Savannah, which includes St. Catherines Island, was one of the original seven Georgia counties. During the period before the Civil War, Liberty County was the site of many rice and cotton plantations.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/counties-cities-neighborhoods/liberty-county
[9] Governor of Georgia during the Civil War: From the web: The Civil War (1861-65) governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown was one of the most successful politicians in the state's history and the father of two-term governor Joseph M. Brown.
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/joseph-e-brown-1821-1894