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CSHR 9/40

Lancaster Ohio.,
January 20, 1864
[1864/01/20]

[WTS]

From the papers, dearest Cump, we learn that you arrived safely at Memphis & were tendered a public dinner &c. which you accepted. Although many days have passed since we got this news by telegraph, yet I have had no letter from you. It cannot be possible that you have made your visit there & left without writing to me either there or on your way down. I could not accuse you of such unkindness & yet I would feel much better satisfied if I had received a letter. One letter in three weeks is not enough yet it is all I have had from you since you left. This is the day you told me to write to you at Memphis. From the date of your leaving Memphis for Vicksburg I doubt if this will reach there before you will have passed on your way home, or rather on your way to Cairo &c, but as you were very explicit in your directions to me not to write except on the 10th & 20th inst to Memphis & on the 1st to Cairo I have concluded to follow directions whether I succeed or fail in communicating with you. Your blankets came on Saturday evening the 2nd inst and according to directions I forwarded them to Silas Miller. Do not forget to pay the charge on them. I intended to prepay them but John took them to the office contrary to my directions, without waiting for the money. You are going to pay for the horse so you can remember this at the Same time. I enclose, with this a letter from Minnie which she sent to me to direct. I have had several letters from her and from the tone of them I imagine she is rather homesick. But that is almost inevitable and I hope she will soon get over it. She is very anxious for me to come down but I fear I will not be able to do so as Mother is much worse, and Father also. Last week I thought Father was sinking rapidly - his symptoms were very alarming and the Doctor almost dispaired. He has however rallied again but I look on it as the flickering of a candle before going out. It is impossible & wholly undesirable that Mother should linger more than a week or two from this time. It is with difficulty she can be moved in bed & it takes three persons at once to change her clothing & make her bed. Rachel is suffering from severe cold on her lungs which commenced with asthma and is passing off as your attacks generally did, She is quite fretful. Kate Willock is sick & Tommy & Lizzie are not at school but they read a good deal particularly Tommy. Lizzie steals off to the kitchen to help Sarah cook whenever she can. Elly is well & seems happy to have ascertained that General Sherman is her Papa & her Papa is General Sherman. Dear Willy must look on us from heaven now, where I trust his pure prayers will obtain for you - his fondly loved father - the grace of the true faith and the Sacraments, and for us all, strength & perseverance until the hour of death, when we may join him & dwell with him forever, in the bosom of our Father & our God. Pray for us pure saint! Philemon is in New York but will probably be home soon. We may have to telegraph to him any day. All send love to you. The children talk of you & of Willy & Minnie all the time,

As ever,

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
January 21, 1864
[1864/01/21]

[WTS]

I wrote you yesterday, dearest Cump, according to your directions to me in your letter written in the Gun boat, but last evening I received your letter of the 11th and having complained of not hearing from you I now write to say what pleasure your letter gave me. You must have been fatigued to death by business and pleasure during your breif stay in Memphis. I regret, very much, that you are going in person on an expidition against those desperadoes. When will you get back to your Army at Huntsville? and how will you return there? If by Louisville, can you not run up to Cincinnati and visit Minnie at her convent school? If you can, telegraph me and let me meet you there. As I told you in yesterday's letter I fear I will not be able to go down as soon as I expected or as soon as poor Minnie wishes me to come. Mother is very much worse, Father is not as well as when you were here but he has been so much worse since that he now considers himself greatly improved. He has abandoned all thought of Washington this winter, very much to our releif. Philemon has not got home from New York nor has Father yet heard anything from him in regard to the business. It seems Fremont keeps his Staff of Colonels Lieut Colonels Majors &c although not on even nominal duty. A grateful country is supposed to take pleasure in keeping them, in his honor. Haskell is one of them, Zaggoni - another. I have got my house engaged for Spring and have more than enough furniture &c to fill it but I have not yet ventured to tell Father that I am going. I dread to See him worried but I must command privacy and a home to myself, for my time of coming trouble. Go I must when the time arrives at which I can have the house, After all the devotion I have shewn him Father cannot be so unjust as to accuse me of unkindness to him in this, but if he do, my Father in heaven who reads my heart, will I trust hold me innocent of blame in the matter.

Poor little Rachel suffers very much from that cold on her lungs. I really feel uneasy about her, she has had so many severe attacks of that sort. Elly too is quite subject to colds on her lungs which are always accompanied by cough which disturbs her the entire night. I wonder the little things are able to run about as they do through the day after coughing all night long. Tommy is very anxious to receive a letter from you. He says no person writes to him. Darling Willy! how I wish we could see him for one moment. It seems to me I would then be better reconciled to his loss. But we must wait, until passing through the gates of death, we can join him, since he nevermore can come to us.

Lizzie's health continues better than usual during the winter. Try to prepare your soul to meet our darling in heaven.

As ever, your affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
January 29, 1864
[1864/01/29]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Had it not been for your letter to me telling me "not to attempt to follow you with letters but to write on the 20th inst. to Memphis & on the 1st Feb. to Cairo" I would have written to you several times before the 20th. As it is, I fear you were disappointed when you reached there on the 20th from Vicksburg. My letter of the 20th, enclosing one from Minnie to you, did not probably reach Memphis before you reembarked for Vicksburg. I cannot bear even to think of your passing over the Same way where our darling suffered, God only knew, what agony. But thank God he is forever happy and the temptations & sorrows which so thickly strew the paths of mortals can never trouble him again. Holy, happy saint! pray for us. May God forgive me all my short comings towards the pure spirit that was for nine years confided to my unworthy care. Surely my tears & sorrow must have washed away those sins at least, especially as I have never dared to murmer at God's decree in taking him away. What a joyful meeting it will be in heaven should we be blest in getting there to find our darling waiting to receive us. Through the merits of our Saviour's passion & death heaven was opened to Willy & you too must have the faith & hope & love for God which he had for our Saviour says unless you become as little children you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Ask Willy to pray for you & God will give you faith. Willy felt very badly about your not having faith and it was a trial to his loving heart to know that the father he so idolized on earth never prayed to God for blessings which are eternal. Of course I never talked to him of this, but he made the application of faith & religious instruction, & in his heart lamented what he had too much love & respect for you to criticise - he lamented it, as a misfortune, but little things several times shewed me his keen feelings on the subject which he sought to conceal.

I feel very anxious about this expedition you are going out on and shall rejoice when I know you have safely returned to Memphis.

Saturday morning January 30th -

The Doctor has just left Mother's room and tells me to telegraph Philemon at Washington to come home at once if he would see Mother again living. She is very low but owing to her weak and greatly exhausted state she does not suffer such terrible agony as we had feared she would from the Doctor's representations of former cases of the kind. She knows us all and calls us by name whenever we go to her. Father is very much improved and is better now than the Doctor or any of us ever expected to See him. He will go to Washington as soon as he can after Mother's funeral if he continue as well as now and the weather be not bad. His friends and clients are anxious to have him come on and have made every possible arrangement for his comfort. Philemon will go on with him and he will take a servant so he will have as much attention as possible. We have had delightful summer weather lately but it is too warm to be wholesome. I hope you have had pleasant weather for your trip down to Vicksburg and your expedition east. Father has telegraphed to all the boys to come home but we do not know that any of them will get here.

On looking over my scrap book I find that I have that letter of resignation which you wrote at Alexandria on the breaking out of the rebellion. I forget what it was you wished to have done with it. A brother of Admiral Foote called here a day or two since and he and Father had a great talk over you & the Admiral. He expressed the warmest feeling and highest admiration for you. I gave that piece from the Bulletin to Mr. Martin & he is to Send it to Mr. Casserly with a request to have it published in San Francisco.

I have just been called to Mother's room where Sis is sitting. I think Mother is dying.

The children are well -

As ever my dearest your truly affectionate wife

Ellen E. S.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
February 2, 1864
[1864/02/02]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

From following your very positive directions too closely, I fear I have left you to be disappointed on your arrival and during your stay in Memphis. I wrote you the days you directed but on the the 20th ult., the day you told me to write the second letter, which enclosed one from Minnie, did not get there before your departure. We have had an account in the papers of your fine dinner party and of the speeches made by you and Genl Hurlbut. How hollow all such pleasure must seem to you since witnessing our darling Willy's death. I can never again feel as I did before.

I see that you have placed General Buckland in command. Until I have news of your safe return to Memphis I shall feel very anxious about you. I hope you have written me a second letter from Memphis and that I will soon receive it. The intervals between your letters seem very long to me. I am lonely at heart but my time is fully occupied. Mother is so low that she can scarcely move her hand or speak above her breath. We look for Tom & Ellen tomorrow. They telegraphed Sis that they would be here. Will you not be able to run up to the convent to See Minnie on your return to Louisville? She is charmed with the place and very happy. They are thorough teachers and I feel sure you will be satisfied with Minnie's progress when you see her. I hope you will not fail to Send me another month's pay as I told you the nine hundred you left would not clear me debts and leave me any for future use long. I do not like to be always overdrawn at the Bank.

Lizzie's health is better this winter than it has ever been a winter yet. Father is much better but really I look upon his improvement as temporary although he builds great hopes upon it. Father Lange is dangerously ill of lung fever. The Arch Bishop has been up to See Mother. He expressed the greatest gratification at your having placed Minnie at the Notre Dame Convent and he evidently intends to pay her especial attention. The Sisters already seem to take great interest in her.

The little ones are well. The anniversary of dear Willy's birth month we will have another added to our little flock. God's will is all holy and all just but how much we would have preferred to have kept our lost darling. I know he is not lost but only gone before us but I cannot help calling him our lost one because we feel a loss in his absence for all time. Happy, beyond all earthly joy, the day that will reunite us in our heavenly home. We all pray for you earnestly here dearest Cump and Willy prays for you before the face of his God and Father in heaven. God loves him with a tenderness that no earthly Father could feel why therefore does my miserable heart so mourn for him. Only God can tell the deep secret springs of human woe -

Ever your faithful,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
February 8, 1864
[1864/02/08]

[WTS]

This is your birthday, dearest Cump and a bright beautiful day it is overhead. But alas the sun shines brightest when the heart is saddest. What anguish have we not suffered since this day last year! What was a cause of deep sorrow and bitter anguish to us was I trust and beleive the beginning of unutterable joys to our darling, whom we can see on earth no more. Earth can know no desolation like that which fills the heart of a parent who beholds as we did the agony & death of an innocent and manly child. Did I not beleive that God loves him not only with a general but with a special love & that he has taken him to His to rest and happiness eternal I could not endure the trial so tender and so severe it is to me. But I must not when I can help it, weep over his happiness when I know he is praying for us. Your long kind letter of the 28th ult. was most welcome I assure you, but it makes me very anxious to learn the result of the expedition which must be hazardous. Hugh is here and he says the enemy have left our front at Chattanooga and gone to oppose you. Hugh arrived on Saturday having been summoned by Father by telegraph. Charley will be here today. Logan had removed his Head Quarters to Huntsville so they were not to=gether. Tom & his wife got here on Wednesday. Mother is still living but that is all. Father is much improved but really I do not look upon his health as likely to be permanantly established, He himself however has great hopes. Philemon got home from New York & Washington. This morning Hugh telegraphed for Henrietta. Grant offered Hugh the command of the District of Louisville and he intends to accept it, and take his family with him. Lizzie & Tommy started to school again this morning much to Tommy's satisfaction & Lizzie's chagrin - Kate had not been able before to resume the school. I told you in one of my other letters of the visit of Admiral Foote's brother and of the great talk he and Father had about you and the Admiral. I sent that article from the Memphis paper to be republished in California. On Saturday I recd a very kind letter from Mrs. Swords about Minnie. Father insisted upon my sending for Minnie last week. She will return this week. She is very much pleased with the school and from all she says about it I think it a fine institution. I will return with her if possible. All send best and fondest love to dear dear Papa.

As ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
February 17, 1864
[1864/02/17]

[WTS]

I wrote you yesterday, dearest Cump and had no time or quiet to review my letter. I have since thought that it might seem to you I had written in a moment of anger and irritation about Hugh. Not so - I wrote just what I thought and felt and had no intention of expressing any anger in the matter. It is not worth while, nor is it treating you with confidence to feel one way and write another so I told you just how we felt on the subject. We are now having another severe change of weather like New Years. Minnie was to have gone today, with Capt Harris & wife but as it is severely cold I do not like to Send her lest some accident may keep her into the night as was the case on New Year's day. Dan Giesy is going down tomorrow and should the weather moderate at all I will send her then. On no account will I keep her longer than Friday. The Sisters evidently take a deep interest in her. Sr Alphonse has written to her twice. She writes a beautiful letter. It is a fine school I feel anxious to See it. Beleive me ever with anxious a faithful love

Yours,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
February 26, 1864
[1864/02/26]

[WTS]

A multiplicity of distractions and cares have prevented me writing to you within the past week, dearest Cump, but I have not felt that a letter would reach you for quite a long time even if written a week since.

On Saturday morning last dear Mother left us for her eternal reward at the hands of her Creator & Redeemer whom she has ever loved & endeavoured to faithfully serve. After lingering in the most agonised state of suffering - notwithstanding her extreme debility - she passed away very quietly having been too low to see move or speak or even swallow, for almost twenty four hours. Father was sitting by, holding her hand, and all her children with many others, were in the room saying the prayers for the dying when she passed away. As Hugh was reading the last prayer her soul ascended to God to whom we were recommending her for Mercy. She has joined our darling Willy now, and together, I trust they watch over us. She greived so sadly, when she learned the Sad news of Willy's death but now her mourning is changed to joy that she has him safe from earthly toils & troubles & that they repose together in the bosom of Our loving Father & God. What joy awaits us some blissful moment when the sorrows of this world are passed & we leave the body to Mother earth & join our precious boy in heaven. God grant that this may be our happy lot that together we may meet those who have gone before and be rejoined in turn by those we leave behind us. There was something so cruelly touching to my poor heart in Willy's death that the pang has left me almost callous to other woes. I was so unprepared for that - but I will not dwell on it as it nearly kills me to give way to my feelings about him.

Saturday morning Feb 27th.

As it was late last evening dearest Cump, and my heart could not be withdrawn from my sorrow about Willy I left off writing & prepared for bed. Charley left yesterday for his post and I sent Minnie with him to Cincinnati. She was to have returned last Wednesday but it grew as suddenly & nearly as severly cold as New Years and I was afraid to Send her lest she might be delayed on the way and take cold. On Saturday she was to have gone with Mr. Willock but Mother's death prevented. I am sorry she has lost so much time but I could not avoid it. She is in fine health and fully appreciates your anxiety to have her learn. I think I will send Lizzie there next fall. Tom Ewing left on Friday - his wife had gone before as she had left her children with friends who were anxious to get to their own home. Hugh is here yet with Henrietta in their own house with the children. He is waiting for orders. As I told you he despairs of promotion under you & thinks that you will never be willing to See him recommended. With this impression he saw Grant who promised him command of the district of Louisville. He is waiting for orders and shoud he not receive them he may resign. I have not talked with him about it but this is my impression from what Father has said to me. Father & his nurse Philemon & Sis all started on Thursday afternoon for Washington Father was very much improved in health & unless the trip should disagree with him he will probably have comparatively good health during the Summer. I have already told you of the death of Father Lange.

Dear Cump I would like to have you write me if you greatly prefer to have the child that will be born in June named for dear

[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
March 8, 1864
[1864/03/08]

[WTS]

The newspapers report you returned to the River and if that be the case I trust I may soon have the happiness of seeing you. It seems necessary to my future happiness & comfort that I should see you for a short time at least. Since Mother's death I feel so very unsettled and in a state of such doubt & perplexity that I scarcely know what to do or which way to turn. I cannot consent to settle down as the housekeeper here when I must in consequence be then seperated from you & Minnie and also from Lizzie for she must be sent to school with Minnie next fall. There is no prospect of good schools here for years to come and before that Tommy too will want the best care of teachers. Sis is determined not to leave home & yet she is not willing to keep house, so I would be keeping house for my family & Father's which wd be composed of Sis Col Steele Father nurse John & Sis's servant - quite a good sized family in all and I would besides be expected by Father to entertain Tom's family for months or a year at a time whenever it suits their convenience to come here. I have a large enough family of my own to call forth all my poor energies and I cannot place myself longer in a situation to be harassed & disturbed by the multidudious annoyances & criticisims which the crowding in of several families into one house invariably produces. My health is so very feeble that with all the care and and peace of mind I can command under the best of circumstances I scarcely can hope to See my poor little children more than half grown. I feel like devoting myself to them henceforth and doing all I can to prepare the older ones for the care of the little ones when we may be called away. If I can live at Reading & be near Minnie & Lizzie whilst they are gaining the very best instruction I think that would be the best thing for me but before I make any such change I would like to See you. In all probability I could not go until after my confinement in June but in order to be ready then I should have arrangements made in time. Sis has always felt a grudge at me because of the mortgage on the farm and her present design is to get Father to release the mortgage and give the farm to her. This he has agreed to do and for the purpose of effecting the change he offers me some of the mill creek property in Cincinnati. He had the deed for the transfer written and intended to Sign it and have the notes relinquished before he left home but he fortunately forgot it the day he left which was the day he had arranged to sign it. I feel entirely unwilling to make the transfer and burden myself with property without consulting you. Hugh goes to Cincinnati to-morrow en route for Louisville and if I feel well enough I will go down with him and get as just an estimate of the

The rest of this letter is torn off.

[EES]

Cincinnati Ohio.,
March 10, 1864
[1864/03/10]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I have just had a most agreeable visit from Taylor Sherman Capt. Moulton & Mr Willock. Taylor tells me he has just seen some Officis who went with you on the Vicksburg expedition. It is true, as the papers reported that you went to New Orleans after your return from the interior. They say that you will come up the river immediately after spending a few days with Banks so I am in hopes I may meet you here even before my return home or if not now that you will telegraph me and allow me to meet you here as soon as you can get here. I have not yet decided how to get out to See Minnie. Hugh was to have been here by this time but as he had to go the store for Mr Slevin first & bring him with him if possible I presume that is what is keeping him. We wished to get Mr. Slevin to go with us to See the Mill Creek property. I do not wish to take Father's deed for that property & relinquish my notes & mortgage until I have seen something more of the real value of the property as adapted to my probable wants. It no doubt will be immensely valuable in ten or twelve years but in the mean time the assessments for improvements will be exceedingly high and when the money is most needed for the education of the children it may be a tax instead of a source of profit. You & I might be called from the children within the next five years and the property which I have would alone be left for their education & support. I do not like to refuse to accede to the wishes Father has expressed in this matter & think you should be here to attend to it yourself & decide for me for if I relinquish the mortgage on the farm it will not be for Father's advantage but for that of Sis & Col. Steele. I am troubled about it more than I can tell for personal feeling is mixed up with the matter & for that reason I fear to act. I left Lizzie Elly & Rachel alone in the house with Emily & Sarah. I will go up to Reading tomorrow to See Minnie & will go home either Saturday - day after tomorrow or Monday. I brought Tommy with me as he is always content to remain here with Effie when it is not convenient for me to take him out with me. It is so lonely at home since Mother's death I can scarcely bear to Stay in the house. I think I will not do so long. Do let me see you soon if for ever so short a time. It does me good for a long time.

Ever your devoted,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
March 26, 1864
[1864/03/26]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I feel disappointed that I have not heard from you yet and my disappointment is unreasonable too for you have been travelling and have had no time to write. Instead of being three weeks since we parted, as it seems to me, it has been in reality only four days. Thus it is that imagination suggests many things which reason over throws. From the papers I learn that you reached Nashville on Wednesday evening. You did not tarry long in Louisville.

I have had one more dispatch about Father. On Thursday Sis telegraphed me that he was "still ill but improving -" We have recd letters from Sis & Philemon written Sunday & Monday. Father's attack was exactly the Same as the last he had at home during the absence of Philemon in New York and after your visit. It is no doubt dropsy of the heart. I have learned from those who have had experience that the symptoms of that disease are exactly Father's symptoms - the cough, sense of suffocation threatening strangulation, the swelling & discoloration of the legs &c &c, At Father's age we cannot hope that he will survive many severe attacks. If God only blesses him with faith and sanctifies his soul with the Sacraments we will be content to See him join Mother & Willy in their home above whose joys the heart of man, on earth cannot conceive. I will write or telegraph you according to the news we have of him. In no event could I go on to Washington. The ride from Cincinnati was as much as I could bear. Things at home do not look quite as gloomy to me since my visit with you. We are the "weaker vessels" and you must bear in mind that we want cheering and sustaining influence particularly when in affliction. I will get through the Summer as quietly and as happily as I can but in the fall I will go elsewhere - if it be only to board through the winter. My health is never so good here and now that gloom and sorrow has overwhelmed us the place is too dismal and I fail to keep up an interest in anything. I have again within two days a cold in my lungs which is by no means slight.

The letter from Callahan in Leavenworth giving me the name of the man to whom he wished me to make a deed must have got among your papers. I cannot find it. If convenient send it to me if not, never mind it. I will write to him again for it. I am sorry to Say Lizzie is quite deaf again. She is otherwise well & so are the other children. Tommy is out just now on "Sam" with Carter in attendance.

I enclose you a letter recd from Mr Moss. Please return it and account to me. I have got Mr. Martin to write to Mr Casserly to take the preliminary steps for selling the property & to write to me what action on our part or Lizzie's will first be necessary. As a simple order from us may be sufficient I wish you to write one a mere business order that can be produced in court authorising Mr Casserly to Sell & testifying that we can invest the money to better advantage for Lizzie. Write this paper & sign it and send it to me for my signature when I will send it to Mr. C. - If that be sufficient we will save time and the sooner pay Mr Moss & Mr Casserly. If that be not sufficient no time will be lost on account of it as we have already written to Mr Casserly. I hope you will not fail to attend to this for me. I have taken steps for the purchase of $1500. of Gov't Bonds which counting the interest in gold, the price of gold & the exemption from taxation will be as good as money loan'd at 9 pr. ct & that is more than I cd get now, Col. Steele sent the children & me a present of a quantity of maple sugar & molasses which delighted them exceedingly - I have written to him.

I will write to Minnie to go in to Mrs Swords to have her tooth plugged. Give my love to Charley if you see him. I have written to him. What has been done with Hugh? I was in hopes you wd persuade him to return to the field. The Arch Bishop was very much gratified by your message & wrote me a letter highly complimentary of you &c. &c. I did not get to See him but wrote him a note. All send love to dear Papa

Beleive me ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
March 28, 1864
[1864/03/28]

[WTS]

I hope you have recd my letter of last Saturday or Friday, dearest Cump and that you have sent me the paper formally authorising Mr Casserly to sell that property of Lizzie's. I wish such a paper as he can produce in court, signed by you & me. Should that be insufficient he will write before it reaches him and no time will be lost I have already written to him on the subject. I will write today to Mr Moss and pay him when the sale is made. I never wrote to Mrs Welsh on the subject or authorised her to speak to Mr Moss, and I am sorry he has advanced the money but as he has done so I must pay him & to do that I wish to Sell the property & invest what little we may get for it in Gov't Bonds or something else here for Lizzie. After all that I have already spent on it I am not willing to throw it away. I have sent Capt. Welsh at two different times over $300. in all & I feel in honor bound to pay Mr Moss for this & Mr Casserly too will have something advanced. If we get one thousand dollars out of it I will feel satisfied & that properly invested here for Lizzie will accumulate a nice little sum by the time she may need it. Please write & send me this formal paper to be used in court.

After Mother's death my mind was in some measure directed from my former affliction & between my distress for Mother's sufferings and a comfort that pervaded my soul in the thought that she was now with Willy the keenest edge of my sorrow seemed to be wearing away. But since I met Capt Smith at the Burnet House steps old feelings have revived and every charm that spring weather awakens sends a pang through my heart which nearly kills me I know this is unreasonable and I try to shake it off. I occupy myself constantly and do the best I can but here, where everything brings gloomy recollections & the contrat with the past is so painful I feel as if reason would desert me.

When I am able I must get away somewhere. I must be nearer you for with all the rest of my cares & sorrow I cannot so well bear the wide seperation as I have hitherto done.

I have no hope that Father will live through the Summer. Philemon's letters are very discouraging Write to me often and beleive me

ever faithfully yours,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
March 30, 1864
[1864/03/30]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Short as your letter is you cannot imagine how much pleasure it gave me to hear from you yesterday. As you are to be absent from yr. Head Quarters eight or ten days I fear it will be some time before I hear again. The pictures of Chattanooga I have not yet recd. All these things I will take as strict care of as heretofore but the charm died out of them when Willy was taken away. Although I love Tommy just as dearly, I cannot take the Same interest in things for his sake. God no doubt took Willy in mercy to us that we might realise, what we before well knew, the vanity of human fame compared with the immortal life of one child. Heavenwards whence Willy calls, the first & most absorbing aspirations of my heart & soul must constantly tend. The infirmities & cares of earth keep me at a great distance from him - the love I bear to you & others consoles me in what would otherwise be too great a sorrow for my heart but while I endeavour to renew my interest in passing events and keep up a proper & commendable pride & ambition I have no more zest for what I so lately thought too much of, and mechanically & from force of habit do what I heretofore enjoyed. I feel that our great earthly object now, must be to secure a proper & abundant income for our children so that they may not be left to the cold charity of others when we join Willy. I will add five hundred of the money you gave me to the thousand which Hugh paid me to be invested in Gov't Bonds, if you can send me two or three hundred more at the expiration of the month or soon thereafter. Letters from Philemon & Sis give the most unfavourable account of Father's sickness up to the 26th. A dispatch yesterday says, "He is getting along well" - how far he is better I cannot tell but I fear not very much. I will send tomorrow a box with some summer clothes. Write me if you need handkerchiefs or anything else.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
March 31, 1864
[1864/03/31]

[WTS]

I have written you a short letter almost every day since I parted with you dearest Cump at the Burnet House last Tuesday week - I fear my letters may give you some trouble. You have so much on your mind now - such a vast responsibility resting upon you that I ought not to disturb you with my cares and sorrows and I will endeavour not to do so hereafter. Only remember that whilst you are happily diverted in mind and have constant and exilerating exercise of body I am shut up, a prey to gloomy recollections - unable to walk - sickness & increased care before me - and a perpetual quiet without with nothing to direct or distract from the sad longing of a wounded & bruised heart, Nothing but God's dear love and a desire to serve him. Whilst grace is consoling & strong the flesh is weak and human nature will assert its own powers for good or evil, happiness or unhappiness. I enclose a letter from Mrs Swords which will explain itself - this is the day Minnie was to go in but it is dismal here and no doubt it is so there and she will postpone the visit. No later news of Father. I wish you would have Hill get out your papers & let the letters &c. be sent to me I wish to find Carter's receipts which I enclosed to you lately before I pay him. He says that you said there was $130. coming to him. Can you not get along with one Servant less & save Carter's wages in that way? With Father's large family & my own to provide for my current expenses will be heavy. Anne Sears her husband & little girl are here Ann having come in as housekeeper - When we begin to move out she will be needed but I do not need her. Still I must furnish the table - Then there is Rosy whom Father charged me not to dismiss - Then Father's man John who boards here & is at present doing some work at the farm & for himself - he has to be kept. With all this household to cook for Sarah gets no time for washing so an extra woman has to come in for that. By September I hope to be nearer to you & in the meantime we will get along here as smoothly as possible and go to as little extra expense as possible. I beg you Cump to be very careful not to expose yourself by overexertion of mind. Loss of sleep with anxiety of mind are the great evils I dread for you. I have no particular fear of battles - no fear of your not doing all that can be done in your Dep't. but I dread lest you give yourself up to overexertion and suffer yourself to be deprived of a proper amount of sleep. The brain cannot continue healthy when that is done & the body too breaks down. Be prudent and unconcerned like Grant & Halleck and your health will keep up as I trust and pray it may. Think what I would be without you and for the sake of the poor little children let us both preserve life & health as long as possible. Lizzie's hearing has improved already and her health seems excellent again Tommy has resumed his school and got head of his classes again. Rachel is just getting over a slight attack of asthma and Elly is as tough as possible. The weather has been very unpleasant so I cannot get out even to ride. Did you pay Hammond for the dispatches & Silas Miller for the washing of your blankets & the express charge on them. Do write me a few lines as often as you can.

Ever faithfully yours,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
April 7, 1864
[1864/04/07]

[WTS]

Last evening, dearest Cump, I received your letter of the 2nd with the letter for Mr Moss and the photographs for Lizzie & tommy. I have just added a post script to your letter and have told Mr Moss that I am not willing that Capt Welsh should have the property back for the advances that have been made on it. I have urged him to hurry on the Sale. If we get a thousand dollars clear it will something for Lizzie and I will not lose the chances. It is well understood that you have no time to attend to private business so if you will just sign or write such simple papers as may be called for I will attend to the rest and try to Secure something out of it for Lizzie's future use. I am sorry you did send such a paper as could be presented in Court by Mr Casserly. He will however no doubt write us soon just what is necessary to be done. I wish you would return me the bills Mr Moss enclosed and his letter also. I ought to have all the papers relating to the property together. Send also those receipts I forwarded to you of Carter's. He has proved very trifling - kept a whiskey bottle in the Stable had negroes running there to drink with him - went off three different days & staid all day & the last day came home drunk and talkative. I told him next morning that I had not work for two men & he is out now working by the day. I paid him for the time he worked here - and not for the days he was sky larking and I told him that when you sent on the money for his wages from you I would pay him that. But I will not pay him that until I have seen all those receipts for there is neither justice nor charity in giving negroes so much surplus money when they do not know how to use it. You will find that in keeping two servants for your horses as you did when you had Carter, that only one does the work. Carter says that you told him you owed him $130. Did you deduct the times he was sick? The negroes here have already filled his head with nonsense and exaggerated ideas of his independence and ability to get along. He denies now that he ever was married & I think he either has married or wants to marry Milly. Before you pay Charley for the advance he made to Carter let him give you his account of our journey last October & the $250. I gave him for it and also settle the mess bill of $19. he owes you. As Charley had not hitherto made good use of his money I do not feel disposed to overlook small accounts with him. I see Dan McCook has been promoted - How this must seem to Col. Cockrill who is on every account so far more deserving & whose son even is Dan McCook's senior in the Service as a Colonel! I am very sorry you endorsed his papers therby diminishing the chances of your own veterans. The paper announcing his promotion spoke of his endorsements. He shall pay me my note now of $110. and five years interest at 10 pr. ct. Money never will be more plenty & he never will pay if he do not now. I have written to my Attorney to get the money or get back both lots and sell them. Father has improved very much but he is so disposed to over exertion and imprudence in going about that we greatly fear a return of his violent symptons. Philemon is now spending a week or two at home but will return to Washington where Sis has been obliged to remain with Father. Col. Steele sent the children some home made sugar and molasses and has written to them to come down & make him a visit. They are quite charmed. Minnie has spent two or three days with Mrs Swords and had her tooth plugged. The Col took Mrs Swords out to See Minnie but I sent you the letter I think. John Sherman did not buy the Carpenter farm. Father has taken it back & I have his note for the $4000. He has never said or written a word about that transfer & Philemon says he beleives Father thinks it is all settled. It is a soft spring morning & every sweet note of birds I hear sends a thrill of agony through my heart for the loss of Willy - But why it should reason or faith cannot tell for he hears sweeter music far than that of birds & his joys now surpass our understanding The soul & will may be superior & submissive but the human heart must mourn & mine can never forget what it has lost.

Ever dear Cump your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
April 11, 1864
[1864/04/11]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I think I wrote to you on Saturday & this is Monday, but Sunday is such an intolerably long lonely day here now, that I feel as if a week had passed since I either heard from you or wrote to you. I hope you will not allow yourself to be confined too closely to the office work, which never agrees with you but set an hour for riding and go in spite of everything. Your health is necessary to the performance of future high duties and you are Serving your country best when you endeavour to preserve it. Do not be troubled about Hugh. He has chosen for himself now let him abide his choice. Father is disabused of the idea he had at first about the matter and Philemon said from the beginning that you were right. I am truly glad that Sawyer saves you so much labor. How anxious I shall be when the next campaign opens, but I trust you will not feel any greater uneasiness or any more unpleasant responsibility than when commanding a Corps. I am so much pleased to know that the 13th Regulars is with you. For Willy's sake I hope you will always keep them near you now. I sent my silver pitcher from Mrs Cline over to Mr & Mrs Reese to See, & they expressed great admiration. Tommy & Lizzie are at school - they have fine plays between school hours. I have a presentiment now that Tommy will not be left to us much longer than Willy was. I do not think Willy's death was the result of any accident occuring without the special providence of God. I think God called him to Himself in love and to Secure him to the happiness for which He created him. In tender love which exceeds all human affection He withdrew him from the world before the shadow of its wickedness had been reflected upon his pure & gentle spirit. Unconscious of evil as an infant, yet with a manly appreciation of all that is noble and good, he was ripe & fresh for heaven. I cannot help feeling, when I look at Tommy, that he will soon join Willy.

Lizzie was quite deaf when I came up from Cincinnati but she is over it now. The little ones are very well and growing fast.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
April 15, 1864 Friday morning.
[1864/04/15]

[WTS]

Your letter of the 11th dearest Cump reached me yesterday and although I was in some measure releived of my anxiety by hearing from you yet I would have been & would now feel much better satisfied had the tone of your letter been more cheerful. You are evidently allowing yourself to be too much annoyed by the disagreeable consequences and attendants of your present position. Men will clamor for office & rank - they will be dissatisfied then friends will be importunate and disappointed and you like everybody else that ever held high position will make some mistakes. I entreat you to worry yourself no more about it - take it calmly & knowing that you are governed by principle & a true desire to do what is best let your conscience sustain you. Do not find fault with those who are struggling for position - they would be poor sticks without the ambition that makes them unwilling to See others outstrip them in the race. I thought you felt indifferent to what I said on the subject but since I find that you are fretted by it I am very sorry I named the subject to you. It would be a comfort to me to have some friend to whom I could communicate all my opinions hopes & fears but if it worries you to hear them I turn my heart entirely from such things and give them up forever. Since Willy's death I have felt no personal worldly ambition - my only desire for Tommy is, that he should be good & use his talents for the greater honor of God but not for the acquisition of worldly position or renown. In regard to Charley and Boyle I have been disappointed, for I had beleived Charley to be as free from the faults & vices of men as I am and I no longer hold them as eminently deserving as I did. My only object in speaking to you of what I consider injudicious recommendations was to preserve you from being justly censurable in the eyes of others - for I still wish to see you as perfect as possible & as free from just cause of reproach and blame. I have told you in a former letter that since seeing you in Cin: - (indeed before that time) I have been convinced that Hugh's suspicions of relationship standing in his way, were unfounded. I told Father so and I think he fully appreciates the true state of the case. I have not a vestige of disappointed feeling in regard to his rank. His present step, if nothing else proves him less deserving than I had supposed him to be. Charley has never said a word to me on the subject of his own promotion - of Hugh's - or of his desire to be with you now. Our letters have been few & breif & he has made no reference of any change. I have no idea what his wishes are but I think it possible that he regards it as easier to avoid bad habits when with you than when on Logan's staff. This is mere surmise - I know nothing about it - Charley never spoke or wrote to me on the subject nor did he ever mention Dan McCook to me. Dan McC. is no more fond of being in the front than Hugh Charley or Col. Cockrill nor has he been half as long or half a constantly to the front or in the face of the enemy as either or any one of them. I have known of his being in Ohio three times to their once - and he resorted to considerable log rolling & buncomb to my certain knowledge - derived not from members of the family but from various other sources & my own observation. As to Kilby Smith - you have paid proper and courteous attention to his Mother - now why don't you quietly lay her letters aside & never think of them again? Why let them trouble you? - why read them?

Captain Dayton writes me that your new horse is a beauty, that you have quite a nice rig. Did you get the box I sent you by express? Do you want more clothes - more handkerchiefs? Write me if you do. I get very few letters except yours and from Sis & Father. Do write me often if only a few lines but let them be cheerful as possible. Tell me that you ride out & sleep well and are not worried to death. Father is very much improved & will doubtless enjoy the summer.

Philemon has advised me to take county Bonds instead of Government Bonds and as Mr Martin says I can give up the G. B.s I think I will take Philemon's advice and get tomorrow $1500 of County Bonds which can be got a par or perhaps below par, & which draw seven pr. ct. As I told you, by the time I get the other thousand which Philemon has to collect & pay me for Hugh I will have five hundred to add it and invest it also without delay. I had thought of lending it and securing by a mortgage on a farm but Philemon thinks I had better put it also in County Bonds. - Philemon has just this moment called County Bonds by some arrangement, which he is just now able to make can be got in New York at par but not here - I have told him I will take $3.000 worth & he will order them payable in 8 years - in New York. If you should not approve write me in time. I will get at least one thousand dollars from Cal. for Lizzie & I think I will put that in Gov't Bonds. I am having Callahan sell my lots off in Leavenworth. It is very unhealthy here this season. The sexton of the catholic congregation has buried more persons since the 1st of Jan than are usually buried in a year. The children are are perfectly well & enjoy every fair day. I long for next winter when I can have them near you. How I do wish this war were over.

Ever your truly affectionate,

Ellen,
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
April 23, 1864 Saturday morning
[1864/04/23]

Dearest Cump:
[WTS]

Last evening I received the first letter I have had from you for a week past and I assure you it made me happy to know that you are well, in good spirits and have time to take plenty of exercise. I am releived too to know that affairs in your Department are progressing according to your wishes. I had feared it might be otherwise. It seems so hard to have anything well done by the Government. The first of May will very soon be here and I must say I dread the anxiety which a forward movement of the Army necessarily subjects us to. Still hope always predominates and I have such a settled conviction that you will do the very best that can be done and such confidence in the justice of our cause that I look for a good ending, no matter what disasters may intervene, I wish you could give Charley some appointment on your Staff or about you - don't you require a Judge Advocate? - he wd do so much better if you had him near you and would dignify him by proper social attention. I do not urge this or anything else upon you, but merely suggest it as what we would like if you can do it. Tom Ewing getting into military position through political influence, when so many others of the family were already in, has stood in the way of Charley's advancement, for Father could not do anything for him after Tom had been so rapidly promoted and it worked against him in the State too, where people argued that the family had had honors enough. Dan McCook came to Columbus & had his Father there repeatedly and did his own log rolling. He learned the wire working with Tom I presume. We will soon know how Luke's case turns out. He will find Father well and deeply interested in his case. For Father's sake as well as for his own I hope he may succeed. "Gen'l. Sherman" - the "15th Corps" - and "Luke Clark" are Fathers themes now, Sis will be home to=day and next week she will go to Chauncey to remain sometime, perhaps until the advent of the baby in June. In a few months more she will have one of her own. Father has taken a case of great importance & large fee in the City Court in Washington & will not be home for two or three weeks. Philemon will go on next week. He has been at Cincinnati & at Chauncey the past week and will be home today. Father is remarkable well Sis writes me. He writes to me nearly every day and judging from that and his hand writing, which is quite firm I do flatter myself he is really improved. He is having twenty five hundred* plum trees - a number of additional apple trees and a quantity of onions besides the regular crops. I have had spring vegetables planted in the garden here - and I have had fifteen pretty evergreens set out in the yard and flowers & flower seeds planted and everything fitted up to look as bright & pleasant as possible to poor Father when he gets home. Willy's grave & Mother's, I have had sodded and ornamented with the handsomest flowers roses shrubs and evergreens that the conservatory & nursery could produce. But nothing save God's mercy can soothe the pangs which the recollections of the past awaken in my heart. - For two or three days past the weather has been very fine and the children are true to their instincts in seeking the sunshine and fresh air. Rachel is more opposed to the house than any of them. Should the baby be a boy of course you know I intend to name it Charles holding Willy as too Sacred to us to be given to another however dear. Should it be a girl I scarcely know what to call it but unless you write me some choice you must expect some such name as Rachel. If you were anxious to have the child named for you of course I would sacrafice my feelings in the matter but you already have agreed with me that it will seem like giving Willy up or transferring too much that we cherished for him to another. I intend to write & invite Father Carrier to Stand for it. He and Aunt Mary, who were both so kind to Willy and so fond of him -- Philemon is Trustee of the Vinton estate make so at the request of Mrs Goddard. I beleive it is quite a profitable trust, and quite in accordance with Philemon's taste in business. If you send me $600. I will certainly take three thousand worth of County Bonds & that will make one thousand that I have added to my money at interest this Spring. Two thousand Hugh has paid me. Father has sold some St. Louis property & as he is able to attend to business he will probably have enough in hand & say nothing to me about that poor Cin: exchange. My expenses will be heavy but Callahan will send me the money for two or three lots soon and that will do me, until you have another quiet time to think of me again. Then, with what Callahan sends me I will save another thousand and so make up the two thousand that are missing Minnie has been put to sleep in a room alone at my request - one girl sleeps in with her. I dread the effects of a crowded room at night. The air is poison to the sleepers.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
Arpil 24, 1864
[1864/04/24]

My dear Papa
[WTS]

I received your letter and was very glad to get it and I think it is full time that I was writing to you there is not much going on here now I wrote a long letter to Minnie the other day Ellie goes to School with me some times Rachel does not ofton She is too little Luke has been here we are expecting Aunt Sissie home from Washington I know I will have to go to School where Minnie is next winter we have got things planted in the yard I was so sorry that you did not come here to see us I am glad you liked Minnies school tell Hill that I got his letter. So many are dying now it is very sickly most evrey one that get sick are in the other part of town I have not heard of any body being sick in this part of the town uncle Philemon has come home from Cincinnati he is going to Washington this week Ellie and Rachel and Tommie send kisses to you I cannot write any more

from your affectionate daughter

Lizzie
[]

Tuesday, April 26th -
[1800/04/26]

Dearest Cump,
[WTS]

Lizzie you will see has improved in her spelling. I do not like to be particular about her writing for owing to the delicacy of constitution she has hitherto evinced I think it better to keep her in a constrained position as little as possible. She is doing pretty well at school. Kate Still brags of Tommy as both smart & good. He has improved wonderfully in many respects. I have little or no trouble with him now compared with what I used to have. He seems perfectly healthy too but who could have seemed more so than Willy up to the last week of his life? Elly & Rachel are the picture of health and two of the busiest little bodies you ever saw. They have got to singing again much better than ever Rachel makes rather a poor cut of it but she can swell the chorus & the more noise the more fun. Sickness & sudden deaths still continue here A good german woman whom we knew well, went to market on Saturday morning came home & got breakfast for her family - & was entirely well but was taken with chill fever delerium & was a corpse in twelve hours from the time of breakfast. The Doctors say it is spotted fever and some attribute its prevalance to the use of rye as a substitute for coffee - ergot being largely partaken of in that way. I have not yet heard how much time Carter lost when sick & I will not pay him until I have all little items definitely stated for he gets a dollar & a half a day in town & flourished ($80) eighty when he came here. He was here yesterday for his money. Milly has got him in tow and I think he intends to marry her & give her the money, I have had Willy's grave sodded & evergreens, white roses, snow drops and geraniums & verbinas set out around it, I would give anything to See him in a dream but I cannot. He is too far removed from me - I must be purified first - but some day we will meet

As ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
April 27, 1864
[1864/04/27]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

The morning is so beautiful that I have been out to ride with the children and have returned too late to write you much of a letter. The pictures received yesterday created quite an excitement. One of the condemned ones was given to Elly & one to Rachel and they are delighted to have pictures of Papa. Each young lady wants an album now to put her picture in. I intended to write to you that I should be indignant at any young lady who might get a lock of your hair as it is too thin to spare any except to me - I enclose some of Rachel's which will do as well being very near the color. You have not sent home your letters & papers - you ought so as to Spare the room in your trunk & to enable me to file them away before my sickness.

Gen'l Grant's picture is excellent - One of yours - in the lot 3 & condemned - I like exceedingly well. I like best however the one of lot one marked 3 next I like the one marked 2 & next the one marked 1. I wonder if you can remember The one I like best is one of the three you like best & has the coat unbuttoned. I would like some of all three you have marked 1, 2 & 3, I like them 3. 2. & 1. -

In haste for the mail

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
May 2, 1864
[1864/05/02]

Dearest Cump:
[WTS]

Fourteen years ago last night we were married & only within the last year have our sorrows commenced in the loss of our darling Willy. This is but the beginning. Should we live long either of us we must expect to mourn over more earthly sorrows and find life grow more harsh and dark & dismal as we approach its termination. God grant that all other sorrows (that may be in reserve for us) may have such a halo of heavenly glory and divine consolation reflected on them as the death of our innocent manly darling boy. His happiness now is unalloyed by any of the numerous troubles sorrows vexations & pains that must have fallen to his lot on earth - he has received from his Redeemer & Judge the sentence of the just, & inherits the kingdom & wears the crown prepared for him from the foundation of the world. The joy is his - the sorrow is ours. If I could only bear it as well as I know & feel the justice of the chastisement I would be fortunate, but nature is too Strong in a mother's heart to be subdued by faith or hope. The best I can do is to bear the pangs of sorrow with submissive will.

This time last year you had just started from Young's Point to make the feint against Haine's Bluff & the new move against Vicksburg. What you have gone through since. More than the incidents of an ordinary life time have been crowded into that one year. I almost fear you may find the quiet of domestic life too tame & monotonous should we ever be so fortunate as to return to it again. But you may well be glad to rest from your labors. On Saturday - this is Monday morning - I received two letters from you - one enclosing a check for $300. and the other your pay account for $564.10. I have become speculative and feel more economical the more money I get - so anxious am I to invest a good Sum for future contingencies. I will write you in a few days just what I have done with all this & how my affairs stand. I expect to put the most of this you send me in one or the other of my investments. In the mean time I hope we will have encouraging news of Lizzie's lots and I will make Callahan supply me for convent expenses. Willock is here and I gave him the pay account to take down to Henry Reese.

Father has never yet written me a word about the exchange of mortgage for Cincinnati property. Did you write him anything on the subject? Sis got home on Friday and will go down to Chauncey next Friday. The calling out of the enrolled companies will take nearly all the hands from the works and the Colonel may be compelled to Stop them which would be a God=send. Philemon went on to Washington early last week. Luke staid at Father's house there - he had not received his sentence or orders when Sis left.

I enclose a copy of a note which I addressed to Condit Smith last Friday. You seemed to think I ought to write & therefore I did so. I received the box of pictures which Tommy is very proud to claim. Nothing, I think, ever pleased him more than your saying in your letter to him that he "had always been a good boy." -You said "be as you have always been - a good boy -" that was worth a great deal to poor Tommy, I am so glad you wrote to him.

I shall feel exceedingly anxious about you now the campaign is about to open. Of course you will continue, as you have always done heretofore, to give me the earliest possible information after any encountre with the enemy, Shew poor Charley all the kindness you can.

Ever dearest Cump your truly affectionate,

Ellen -
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
May 6, 1864
[1864/05/06]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Yesterday I received a letter from you dated Nashville May 1st. which of course leaves me in comparative ignorance of your whereabouts as I suppose you had left Nashville when you wrote the letter. You returned the first paper I sent you regarding our exchange of property with Tom Ewing in Leavenworth. I afterwards sent you another paper in which he states that he holds certain lots in trust for me. I hope you will have time to explain that. If he holds any property in trust for me it must either be made over to me, in some other way, or I must give it up entirely, One lot which is in my deed of gift from Father and which Tom does not hold "in trust" - & which I have paid the taxes on he has sold without sending to me for deed or condescending to notify me of the fact. Of course the present occupant has not a good title & cannot hold the lot and I will have it re sold unless Tom refund to me the money for it. He never will answer my letters on business and I have written to Callahan to attend to it & treat it as a business matter & not as a family matter,

But to return to your explanation not one of the lots or pieces of property recited in the paper is named either in Father's deed of gift or Hugh's deed to me - so my title is not good for it & we may as well let it go. When I get your answer to the other paper I enclosed to you. I will write to Callahan to see if he can unriddle it. I mentioned to you that my deed from Hugh for the Budd tract 8 acres was not witnessed. I have since learned that it is not necessary to have witnesses to a deed of Kansas property. The 8 acres of Budd tract is all that is conveyed by Hugh to me & none of those lots or blocks named are embraced in Father's deed to me.

Father writes that he will be home on the 20th. His health seems completely restored. Sis has gone to Chauncey. The call for one hundred days men has taken nearly all the men from Chauncey and the Colonel I beleive has stopped the works. I presume they will soon be here to remain. Sis intends to have the farm & consequently will have it and will live here. You will have to make provision for us in September for when the children go to school - Minnie & Lizzie - I will leave here & will not spend the winter in Lancaster. It is too gloomy & too hard for me & I will not stay.

Should you see Charley tell him that I have written him so many letters without receiving replies that he cannot be surprised if he hears from me no more. As soon as I get my $3.000 invested I will write to you.

The children send best love to dear Papa

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
June 9, 1864
[1864/06/09]

[WTS]

With an old stump of a quill pen I will write you from Father's room dearest Cump it being difficult for me to get up & down stairs and the signing of a deed making it necessary for me to wait here until the Notary comes in. For my Lot 9. Blc 2 in Leavenworth which T. E. Jr & wife conveyed to a man a few years ago Tom has just sent me, through my Attorney, a tax receipt for my taxes in 1861. and I have made him a deed for the lot so that the present occupant may have a real title. I am sure I gave Father money that year to convey to Tom for my taxes but I find no evidence of it among my papers & therefore make the deed. Tom has promised Callahan a deed to me for Lots 1. 2. & 3 which he holds in trust for me on which I pay taxes but which are registered as belonging to him & his wife. I will feel sure of the deed when I get it. In the mean time the lots are a bill of expense to me & have been since I got them I have paid taxes on them every year & yet I do not own them & perhaps never will. My Attorney has full instructions to secure the deed and he know my right to the lots. I have written to you several times lately but not as often as I should have done. It seems almost impossible to write as usual when you are on an active and dangerous campaign like the present. I received your dispatch of the 6th and replied to it the same evening. I hope you got my answer It never occurs to me that you may be anxious to hear from us and I sometimes get so that I feel as if even you did not care to hear from me any more. I have been busy but I never let anything interfere with my customary letters when I feel the importance of writing. I must in future be more careful to avoid those omissions as they evidently annoy you. I am so anxious to hear from you all the time that I forget you may wish to hear from us. I do not expect to be sick for a fortnight or at least ten days yet and when my trial is past, I will get Philemon to write you promptly. Yesterday was Willy's birth day - ten years ago yesterday morning God gave him to us. He has taken him to Himself again and I repine not for him the gentle darling but for our own loss & sorrow & our poor appreciation of the blessing we possessed in so lovely a child. His spirit was too pure for earth - we entertained an angel unawares. At the Same hour at which he was born ten years ago I met him in spirit at the feet of our Lord and Saviour - the children were all at church with me - even Rachel (who grows so much like Willy) and in the afternoon we Spent several hours together around his grave tending the flowers watering and trimming them and praying for and to our holy one whom we shall never more see on earth, but whose memory & love grows stronger in my poor heart each day.

Father got off to Chauncey this morning where Sis is snugly fixed & expecting him anxiously. I attended the funeral of Major Giesy & had the flag at half mast &c as had every one else in town. Minnie writes often and is beginning to anticipate her vacations with great zest. I must close in time for the mail. The little ones are all exceedingly well & looking very pretty

Love to Charley.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 7, 1864
[1864/07/07]

Dearest Cump,
[WTS]

For the first time since I went to bed the night of the 10th of June am I able to Sit up and hold my pen. I had been sick all that day & in the evening sent word to Dr Boerstler that I wd have to disturb him before morning. Mrs Duval came up & Staid with me and I had the nurse here. About one o'clock I sent for the Doctor & at twenty minutes past two the baby was born with a cry loud enough to disturb the neighborhood. Like Tommy he was born with a caul over his face which the Dr. had to remove before his cry came forth. I was quite comfortable until Monday - (he was born on Saturday) - when I had a chill followed by high fever which the Dr succeeded in partially subduing, until Friday when I had another more severe chill after which I was so ill & had such raging fever that my life was in great danger for about a week during which time I had to tax my friends to Mrs Duval & Daugherty & Stambaugh to care for me day & night. I suffered such pain & was so exausted that Father telegraphed for Dr. Carter much to Dr. Boerstler's chagrin. Now I am out of bed for an hour or two & trust the experiment may prove beneficial when I shall venture to ride in a few days & thus gather such strength as God may grant me here after. The second day's fever dried my milk entirely & I have the trial of seeing my poor little baby fret & cry for the natural food & the comfort of lying at his Mother's breast & am deprived of the pleasure of gratifying him. But I must thank God that I am spared to my children & not murmer at the trials He sends me, Minnie will be home on Saturday - poor child she is anticipating great happiness.

I recd a letter from Genl Webster containing check for $517.[49/100];. If that be a pay account it is short of your last one - have they taxed you again or what is the cause? - It is late. I am interrupted - All the children baby included are perfectly well.

As ever

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 9, 1864
[1864/07/09]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I wish you would send me a permit for "Lenard Butch" to sell papers & periodicals within your department & within your lines. He is one of the few loyal catholics of this town an intelligent man & a first rate Citizen. He enlisted long ago & served until discharged in wretched health. His bad health continues as his appearance proves & the Doctor has recommended change &c. He is not able to quit business (he is a silver smith) and travel & is therefore anxious for this permit. Please send it to me for him. I rode a little yesterday being helped to the pheaton & in again. I am very weak & can scarcely write this morning. Tommy has a hoe & a rake & works perseveringly in the yard. Rachel has passed her third birthday - she is very large & robust - the image of Willy but is not so pretty - her features not being so regular nor her expression so lovely. She has more vivacity than he, Indeed she is a regular old "Grand Mother Sherman" & gives promise of ability to take care of two or three generations & boss them all. I greive so constantly about Willy notwithstanding all my efforts against it that I sometimes fear my mind is not in a healthy condition It is to get where I will have more to divert my mind & occupy in foreign matters that I have wished to get away from here. Of course I wd make no move while your campaign is unfinished,

Minnie is coming today & the children are all on the alert. Elly seems a little delicate this Summer & Lizzie is better than she has ever been.

Yours ever

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 16, 1864
[1864/07/16]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Minnie is writing to you this morning so I will give you but a short letter in answer to your good long one of the 9th inst. I have written you two or three times since I was able to hold a pen but I presume my letters had not reached you when you wrote for if they had your complaint was quite an exaggerated one, Now that I am growing stronger I will write regularly & shall hope to hear from you as often as you can possibly write. I expect to hear soon of your being in possession of Atlanta. I wish you could defeat & scatter Johnson's Army. Mr Casserly writes from California that he can sell Lizzie's lot if you will send him the Authority to do so. Please do this at once send your paper to me to sign. I am very anxious to have it sold to pay Mr Moss & to get all our means together & nicely invested. Do attend to it at once. Did I send you Lizzie's deed? Please remember to answer me.

I have been ill indeed - in great danger of death and am left weak & needing medical treatment & without nourishment for the babe, I have succeeded in getting a wet-nurse who is a young healthy widow with a babe old enough to wean which she has put out with a friend of hers in town. Charley thrives grows & fattens & is very strong & healthy with every evidence of the highest intellect and a good disposition "barring" a smart fit of temper now & then. The children doat on him, particularly Tommy & Lizzie. Tommy asked me how long babies wore long dresses & when I told him six or eight months he begged me to put pantaloons on Charley then. He walks with him in his arms watches him & plays with him & Says twenty times a day he is so glad the baby is not a girl. I have not told you how very strongly he resembles you in form face & shape of head. The likeness is striking & I am delighted to See it. All are well and send love to dear Papa - I will attend to your requests about monument &c. Mr Bowman got that letter long ago - I have ordered a good many copies of August No. of U. S. S. M. Regards to all friends. I have not told you of the death & funeral of poor Jim. I was able by great exertion to attend the funeral. Hoyt was here & was my escort. Willock & Capt. Moulton were also here. I will write you more about it. In reply to your telegram of 13th I told you of his death.

Ever your affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 20, 1864
[1864/07/20]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Why you have not recd my letters and all the telegrams we have sent I cannot imagine, since the mails are regular and the telegraph leads to your tent and you "hear through it from all parts of the world. Ellen Lynch's letter I directed lying flat in bed when not strong enough to be propped up with pillows or to hold a pen ten minutes. I knew the letter contained a useless appeal' I did not care whether my direction was legible or not. The next thing I was compelled to scrawl was a letter to Minnie giving directions where to go in the City, after her exhibition & telling her what to bring home & what to leave and enclosing rail road ticket. I was still exceedingly weak & still unable to Sit up in bed & my hand was so tremulous that neither she nor the Sisters could read the whole of the letter. Before I ought to have written at all and as soon as I could hold up my head I wrote to you & I have since written every few days. Very poor & very short and very uninteresting my letters are but they have certainly been quite as frequent as you could desire & why you have not received them I cannot imagine. Your anxiety has caused you to exaggerate th time too, in your own mind. You write on the 13th July to Philemon & you say it is more than a month since you recd his dispatch saying I was much better. That was a mistake of ten days at least for the baby was born on the 11th and on the 13th I was very comfortable & it was not until Philemon had after that date gone to Notre Dame, attended the two exhibitions & been home two days that he telegraphed or could in truth telegraph you that I was better, for I was not out of danger when he got home, I am sorry my letters have not gone promptly and sorry there were no more to write to you whilst I was sick. Sis wrote from Chauncey that I was doing well for she knew nothing about my illness at first & did'nt give herself much concern about it when she did know it but took it for granted I would eventually recover.

I have been sufficiently faithful as a correspondent, in sickness & in health to secure me from any unkind suspicions of neglect on your part. For some time Lizzie with all the other children were at Mrs Daugherty's & for days longer I took no note of time,

The few dispatches that were recd from you were promptly answered & Minnie did not get home until the 9th inst. when Mr Willock very kindly sent her up with an escort, after taking her to Mr Slevin's for the night. Since you desire to know the truth I will tell you at once that my health is in such a state that I must have the best medical treatment & for that purpose must go away from here. Dr. Carter from Columbus was telegraphed for when I was ill & came down, arriving at midnight. I may go to Columbus to be treated by him or I may go further. My dangerous illness was the consequence of neglect of treatment which Dr. Carter told me (when here to See Mother) I sadly needed but which I deferred submitting to, partly because I dread it, partly, because I could not be near a Physician experienced in such diseases & partly because you are so strongly opposed to my leaving Lancaster. and partly because you think it unnecessary & merely a notion or a whim on my part. It has come to a crisis & the fear of leaving my children Motherless must rule me now & encourage me to do what I consider necessary to the preservation of my life & health. Much as I longed to See Willy & indifferent as I felt to life when ill when I began to recover I shuddered at the idea of having been taken away from the children now that you could not possibly be near them, They are all in very fine health & enjoying the summer & its small=fruits - strawberries goose berries currants, whorttleberries and blackberries. Rachel is not even satisfied with that, but yesterday climbed to the top of the ladder and helped herself to a green apple. The ladder had been placed there for gathering apples for sauce. On reproving her for that I was told that she frequently climbed the lattice work & eat green grapes. She saw me pull a tooth for Tommy today & I have made her beleive that I will pull one of her teeth each time she picks a green grape or green apple or climbs the ladder, Elly is very anxious to have her ears pierced for ear=rings. One day Mrs Dau - pretended to be piercing them & gave her such a good stick with a needle that she expected Elly to cry "hold" - but not she - on the contrary she was quite worried that she did not put the needle through. Minnie looks very well although she is much thinner than she was & she tells me she has had a return of the dysentery several times. I have understood that that disease is liable to return. Lizzie is stronger this summer than she has ever been. I am anxious to send her with Minnie to the school & Minnie is very anxious to have her go.* And I cannot conclude to Send Lizzie to Reading because the meat they have on the table there is seldom fit to eat. The fare all but the meat, is excellent but I do not think Lizzie would keep well without fresh meat. The Sisters told me, when you & I were there that the meat they got was miserable and it seemed impossible for them to get better. If I took them to Notre Dame I could also take Tommy & live up there cheaper than anywhere else and I would be glad to go there after getting through with the Doctor. What do you say to it? I forgot to Say that Dr. Carter is a brother in law to Maj McCoy. He is Professor in the Medical College in Columbus & his speciality is women's diseases. When he was down here to See Mother last spring I had some conversation with him about my own health. I like him personally very much & I have more confidence in him than any one I know in the West, but I sometimes feel that I would greatly prefer the opinion of Dr Miegs of Philadelphia, who has more reputation & has had more experience in women's diseases than any one in the country. I do not know yet what I will do, but of course I will let you know before deciding upon anything. God knows I should feel comforted if the war were over and I could have some of your time and care for I have a great charge on my hands for an invalid. I will as heretofore continue to do the best I can and use the judgement God has given me in governing my own actions, always striving to conform to what I beleive to be your wishes - as far as the circumstances surrounding me will admit,

I enclose two notes which will explain themselves. You know Dr. Wagenhals. His son is really as young as he says and as the Dr. stands high in the community here I wish you would give him the certificate he desires, His son is reported at Nashville in today's paper where the usual list appears. "Mary White," is Mary Garaghty - John's second daughter. John has moved here with his family and in the present high prices of things with his limited means he finds it very hard to get along. Mary lives with them. If her husband be a good soldier I wish you would say a word for him to the commander of the Regiment the Capt, of the Co. or someone -that is if you think it right & proper to do so. In sending these requests - and I send but few of those that are made of me - I do not desire you to conform to the wishes of the parties unless you think it right & proper to do so, but I would like to have some answer to them if you can think of them when writing. I am now most anxious to have that power of Attorney for Mr Casserly to Sell Lizzie's lot and to know from you whether I ever sent you Lizzie's deed.

I told you, in my dispatch and I also wrote to you that your brother Jim was buried here on the 12th inst. I had been very feeble - even more so than usual the day before but that day the weather was fine and I felt remarkably well and so went to the funeral Hoyt being my escort. It took place of course from Mr. Reese's where short religious ceremonies were conducted. I took Minnie Lizzie & Tommy. His death was quite unexpected although he had been indisposed for several days.

During the time I was ill Elizabeth shewed so much concern that when I was well enough to notice anything I sent for her to come over and she did so, several times. I have not been there except the day of the funeral because I am not able to go anywhere. I ride but I cannot walk except very slowly & a very short distance. I have not yet been able to get to the church & after sickness the church is always my first visiting place, I have been to Willy's grave & if I must live in Lancaster I will move somewhere near it so that I can walk there everyday. Poor Dan McCook is gone. I am very very sorry and feel truly sad about it, particularly as I fear whilst serving his country he forgot his God. What a pity that you who cd make the service of yr. country the service of God also should lose the best fruits of all such labors & privations, What is time & what is earthly glory to poor Dan McCook now? And our Willy - how differently he now views those things from his home in heaven May his prayers be your shield & guard until we all join him to be seperated no more. I have described the baby to you & told you how exactly his form & the shape of his head face forehead & form resembles you. His eyes are hazel, fine & large and his nose is very large. He seems the quickest & most intelligent of all my babies - notices more at this age - six weeks than the rest did in three months. Tommy has assumed the patronage of him already & talks constantly of how he intends to do with him. If I hear that my letters ever reach you I will write often.

As ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 25, 1864
[1864/07/25]

[WTS]

We have all felt much shocked & greived today dearest Cump by the sudden news of the death of Gen'l McPherson. I fear there is no doubt about it & besides my regret for him personally I lament the loss you sustain in him at this most trying hour, I am painfully anxious for further news for the hand to hand fight has come as I knew it must and many good men must fall. Poor Dan McCook is gone & now Gen'l McPherson. He is associated in my mind with dear Willy because of our visits to his house which was the last house that ever Willy was in - his table was the last at which he sat. O my lost darling, could I have only suspected how sick you were it would save me many a pang now, but your home is in heaven & your joys are infinite and eternal therefore why should I greive - What a dream life is! how quickly it is cut short. Poor McPherson - tell me if he lived long enough to be aware of his fate.* - Even a minute for repentance were better than nothing. God is merciful but he is just and men should not forget him as they do. The last morning we were at Gen'l McPherson's I asked dear Willy, when brushing him up a little, if he said his prayers the night before & he said he had forgotten because his head ached badly. I then said well try and remember them every night Willy: if those around you do seem to forget God you must remember Him & always remain a faithful christian. He answered so sweetly & so promptly I will try Mama never to forget them again. And when I brushed his hair I said now don't you feel satisfied with your hair Willy when you find it is so much like Papa - he said yes with one of his proud smiles - I said "I always told you I loved red hair the best & that your hair was the prettiest in my eyes of any." He went out of the room so happy but he soon returned to it to lie on the floor with his head on a pillow. As he ate nothing that morning nor after that how could I have been insensible to his danger so long. I hate myself when I think of it and it greives me to death to think what I might have done had I been more keen sighted & more anxious

June 26th I stopped here to go to Master Charley who had slept all evening & had not been undressed & rubbed up for the night - whilst getting rubbed he grunts his satisfaction at such a rate that I am tempted to continue it a long time.

We have just received your dispatch and all feel delighted. We have some hopes that McPherson is not killed. I close in haste,

As ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
July 30, 1864
[1864/07/30]

[WTS]

I thought I would have had a few lines from you, before this, dearest Cump, in answer to my numerous letters which you must have received immediately after making your serious complaint against me for not writing. I have always written you from my sick bed & I wrote this time as soon as I could be propped for ten minutes with pillows, high enough to See the paper and as soon as I could lift my hand to guide a pen. This is Saturday and I have a good deal to See to for the children and I am going to get to confession for the first time since early June. The new church is so near that I can hear the music & the Priests voice in preaching very plainly. I will write you a long letter tomorrow, telling of the State of my finances and giving you an idea of my convent expenses in boarding a houseful of servants & hiring my own work extra Potatoes are two dollars & have been three dollars a bushel and everything else is in proportion -

The children are well so far but I feel very apprehensive about the green fruit which lies on the ground all the time. The girls get the best fruit and the children generally pick up the refuse. It seems impossible to watch them. There were an unusual number of deaths from dysentery last year and already some young persons have died of it here this year.

Give my love to Charley. I answered his letter the other day & will write Soon again if I ever get more leisure.

I have as wet nurse for "Charley Sherman" the wife of one of your soldiers & if you enquire you will find he is a first rate one too. Father knows him well. William Gannon is his name & he belongs to Co A. 17th O. Reg, There are two brothers in the Same company I beleive. All send love. The children are out doors so much I cannot make them write.

As ever yours,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 1, 1864
[1864/08/01]

[WTS]

Philemon has written you a long letter dearest Cump, which I enclose with this. Although written at my request it required no persuasion to induce him to write since he fully appreciates the difficulties of my situation and agrees with me in the mode of releiving myself. You write me that if I am not content in Father's house to rent a house in Lancaster &c. There is not a house for rent here that you would have me go into and if there were, it would offend and wound Father too much to have me withdraw from his house simply to be by myself. And were I willing to do it I could not remain long as when he would happen to be a little lonely here for ever so breif a period he would expect me to come back. If Sis had left as she had all along told me she was determined to do as the Colonel would not run the works then I should have been obliged to Stay with Father. Now they have decided to stay indefinitely and Sis has tried Chauncey fully determined not to go there again. So the Colonel will run the works, Sis will live here and Father's carriage will be sent for him once in three or four weeks to make a visit. I am housekeeper & caterer for the three families and it is a task which I am not willing to perplex myself with even if I were disposed to Spend all my means in supporting a troupe of servants the half of whom I cannot control.

Again if I do keep house here in L. I must be seperated from Minnie & Lizzie for it is important that Lizzie should now be put to school in earnest. I cannot put her to School without being able to See her often during the first year for she is so delicate & so peculiar that I would feel it necessary to watch that no serious effects followed the confinement & seperation from home. At Reading they are quite as distant from me in point of time & expense as they would be at Notre Dame. My desire for some time has been - (if I could not be with you) to rent a little home for myself near the School where I put the girls. My first visit to Reading was to see if I could secure a place there & I found that I could not, At Notre Dame - or rather at South Bend I can and find my principle society & pleasure at the School.

The soil is sandy there like Cal: & rains and weather that would make other roads impassable improve it & make it delightful. With old Sam and a little carriage I would be independent - If I attempt to keep Sam here I can no longer resist Father's frequently formed arrangements to Send him on the Chauncey trips and one such trip will use him up forever. John - the man - says - that if Sam is ever driven down in Father's carriage I never will see him again. About the schools - I mentioned in a former letter the objection in regard to diet at Reading. The Sisters told me when I was there that it was impossible for them to get tender meat & Minnie says she did not eat meat twice whilst there. Lizzie could not get along without a generous meat diet, at least I fear she could not.

As to any other school, except this or Notre Dame, it is not worth while thinking of them at present, for all the best schools are in the Cities and our means would not enable me to live in a City at the rates of rents &c. &c,

If you are willing to have Minnie return to Notre Dame, I will take her & Lizzie there & then get a house, or secure unfurnished rooms somewhere in S. Bend for myself during the winter when I can send Tommy also to school. Emily can get my things packed & ready here and I can come down & take up the little ones. I could get board or perhaps even rooms, with the use of a room for kitchen in some of the buildings adjacent to the Academy but I think I would prefer the town. I know some of the people there & a Mr Guthrie there married a Miss Ewing. If there be any hope of our spending the winter with you I would like to put the two girls there & remain at the Sisters until near the time when we could go to you.

I do not know as cheap a place to live, for its advantages, as South Bend and I would prefer it to any other on account of the schools and the number of friends I have among the members of the order and on account of Aunt Mary spending so much time there. I could better leave any portion of my family there than anywhere else for however kind Father may be - and he is truly devoted to the children - he cannot secure them a woman's care were I away & they in a house alone here in Lancaster. Mrs. Daugherty and other friends are most kind but I would not like to have my family scattered again as they have been at times in the past - some at school, some here & some with you. Up there if I were to take a portion of the family to see you any or all of them could be safely left there. You know that Ann Sears is here with her family of three. her husband herself & one child. The object in getting her (Sis engaged her last winter) was that there might always be some one here to keep the house comfortable even if Sis & I might both be absent. We have a family of twenty one - the most of them Servants & we generally have over twenty four to each meal - chance visitors. &c. &c, Where servants fare is like that of the family it costs enormously to keep so many when provisions are so high - I pay between three & four dollars a week for butter - for meat twenty five to thirty dollars a month &c. &c, This with the expense of clothing our children & my other expenses takes all you send me and a portion of the money I had hoped to Save from the sale of the Leavenworth lots. I have got about ($1,500-) fifteen hundred dollars from there but I do not think I can save much. Father has an offer for the Topeka farm and he says if he sells it he will take notes running six, eight & ten years. secured by mortgage on the farm principally, & partly on a farm the man owns near Chillicothe and give them to me & release his farm from mortgage. You have always told me not to take mortgage on property so far west & I have told Father so but he forgets and he will forget even if I tell him again because he thinks he knows best. I do not like to refuse to take this and I hate to have him offer it to me. Should he succeed is selling the farm what shall I do? If not near him I could avoid it much better than when here in the house.

Now Cump, I want you to treat all these things as confidential, and I beg you not to either write or speak of them, seriously or otherwise, to any one but Charley & Philemon. If you feel like complaining of me do not complain to Philemon. To have a large family of growing children on my hands without assistance of their Father's presence and to have all the other responsibilities that are resting on me at present entitles me to look to you for kind expressions of sympathy. Do not write to Father on the subject or you will add greatly to my embarassment for he will then feel angry with me & so express himself & I am not so light hearted that I can hear those things now - -

[EES]

August 2, 1864
[1864/08/02]

[WTS]

I am so often interrupted by the baby the other children & the multitudiuous household calls that I can scarce keep the thread of my subject or finish one letter at a sitting, The baby is very good and his nurse has an abundance of wholsome milk but I like to attend to him myself as too much care cannot be bestowed upon a little one under three months. You will laugh at me for saying it, but I will say, nevertheless, that I think him to most intelligent & the brightest child I ever saw in any family. He is pretty too and so fat and plump & Sweet that we cannot get to nurse him enough each taking turns. Rachel says it is hers and loudly denounces Elly for saying it is part her baby. Lizzie is jealous whenever she sees Minnie have him & Minnie wants to take him from me when she sees me with him & even Emily avails herself of every excuse to drop her work and walk with him about the floor. He is in the yard morning & evening & I bathe him in a little bath tub which I assure you he enjoys -

Elly slept in my room last night & as soon as she got awake this morning she said "O! Mama I had such a sweet dream about brother Willy." I was thinking of Willy just before & at the moment she waked and I know his dear spirit was with us & is indeed always near, always watching over us & offering pure prayers to God his loving Father for us - to Christ his Saviour, God & Brother - to the Spirit of all wisdom & love and to that holy Mother whose prayers he invoked at the dread hour of his agony approached. Would to God our labors were done & our crown secure as his darling boy.

Lizzie has a return of that poison in her face, she had at Vicksburg. I will give her medicine. I have much more to Say but must close now

Write often as you can when you have some rest. Love to Charley &

beleive me ever your truly affectionate,

Ellen,
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 9, 1864
[1864/08/09]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Today I received your letter of the 2nd in which you speak of being indisposed. I feel uneasy for fear you may be sick but were you ill we would certainly hear of it through the papers. What a tedious campaign you have and how hard & continuously you have to work! I think there is more interest felt in your progress than Grant's and more hope of great result reached by you than by him. I quietly await the end, praying for the best and trusting that all will come out well after a time - if it be a tedious & a weary time. I have not written you within the past week because I could not have any assurance that my letters reached you - You never spoke of receiving any - (but the one) - after your serious complaint to me and to Philemon. I cannot write to you now with much ease, - to tell the plain truth; because I sometimes fear to make my letters too long - so that you will not or cannot take time to read them. If I make them short it seems idle or too business like to write many of them - I fear to discuss the subjects you write upon lest you laugh at or scorn my limited knowledge & I cannot give you my own feelings troubled hopes and fears with any hope of sympathy indeed without exciting your anger against me - You know my heart is ever true to you You know I will keep you properly advised of the condition of our little family & therefore you need never be troubled by the non receipt of letters for when ill you cannot come to releive me & if dead my friends would certainly notify you. There is no one in L - you like or care to hear about & as I said before you seem more than tired of all I say or have to communicate. If I had the happy faculty that some have of describing scenes repeating conversations I could interest you in regard to the children, greatly. They are very happy this Summer. Minnie enjoys her vacations in a quiet way. Elly is nearly five years old. Rachel says she is six & she will not admit that Elly is older than her. The baby is growing splendidly and continues to give evidence of sound and vigorous mind and body with a good disposition also.

Father is well and always anxious to hear from you. I think I told you that Tom's family are keeping house in town having rented a furnished house.

When Charley writes to me again I will write to him. I have written to him very often lately but perhaps he does not get my letters either.

Hill's time is nearly out but he is anxious to continue in your service & I hope you will retain him. I would like to hear about him. Capt. Dayton does not write to me any more All send love.

I am as ever

your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 13, 1864
[1864/08/13]

[WTS]

You must all be quite worn out with your tedious campaign in the midst of Summer. Fortunately you have a more healthy position there, than that at the Big Black - O! earth! how fleeting are your joys. Think of Willy & McPherson not a year ago riding with you from your Camp on the day before we left, both in splendid condition & both as full of earthly promise as man & boy could be. Where are they now?

Yesterday Tommy received by express from Cincinnati the uniform suit for which Captain Moulton had him measured in March. With the suit was a kind letter from the Captain to Tommy offering the present &c. &c., The August number of the U. S. S. Magazine came yesterday with a portion of Mr. Bowman's article. It is to be continued in the next number. We are all very much pleased with it. I am particularly well pleased to See McClellan's dispatch to you at Louisville.

Charley has not written for some time. I hope he is well. Give him my love & tell him I will write to him soon. Tommy is not very well. He has a miserable cough. The baby is flourishing with Mrs. Gannon as wet nurse. Tommy is devoted to him and will not call him baby, but Charley, always with great exactness,

Minnie Lizzie & all send love to Papa and Uncle Charley.

Your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 16, 1864
[1864/08/16]

[WTS]

Your long kind letter dearest Cump which was written on the 6th did not reach me until last evening. I am truly glad that you have given your consent to the children's going to Notre Dame for I can keep them more together there than anywhere else. Father will not allow me to have a home of my own here and I feel that I cannot wound his feelings by going directly out of his house, in spite of his bitter opposition, to another house in town. But if I can have the three older children at one place I can then have a reasonable excuse for transferring my residence. I cannot do it abruptly but I think I can manage it so that Father's feelings will not be hurt. I will take Minnie & Lizzie up in time to begin the first day's lessons but I will not make my arrangements to remain so soon. I will not act hastily in the matter. Were it possible for me to live anywhere nearer to you with the children near me at schools I would not think of going there. Or if you had any preference for Lancaster yourself or liked to come here I would remain for the sake of your visits here. I have thought over the matter long & well and I see nothing better than that. I will not buy but will lease a house and have my things kept in it (no matter where I go) until we can have a home together. I told you that I have $300. in Gt. Bonds and have another thousand ready to invest in something. Had I better take more Bonds? Boyle paid me $2.100 and something & I have sold half or nearly half of my Leavenworth lots. I intend to keep the rest until they are improved. (Those I have sold) I am very sorry and feel worried and distressed by your embarrassment occasioned by the expiration of time of yr men, Lincoln is a bungler or he would have had white men on the Spot to releive them. I want you to keep Hill and pay him as usual - he wants to stay with you for he told me he did when he was here. If I cannot go with Minnie & Lizzie in time I will send them up. They shall not lose a lesson.

I was interrupted in my letter & since I commenced Teresa has given birth to a fine son. Tell Charley for I have now no time to write.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 16, 1864
[1864/08/16]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I wrote you a letter this morning which I intended should be a long one but which proved as usual hurried and ill-written. I announced at the close of the letter the birth of Sis's little son which is to be named for Father & for which Tom Ewing & I are invited to Stand Sponsors. It is a very fine little babe but so far has been fretful and uneasy much to Sis's chagrin who has never known what it is to be disturbed by children. Father telegraphed the Colonel and he will be here tomorrow. I think I told you that Ellen Cox is keeping house in town. She is quite unwell at present but the children are thriving finely.

Minnie & Lizzie have both written to you more than once lately but they will write again. Since Kate's school closed Tommy has been indulging so much in the use of his left hand that he finds great difficulty in writing with his right hand. He has been suffering somewhat lately from sore throat but he is better now. It has not prevented him climbing the trees and shaking & eating ripe apples by the dozen. All the children have indulged in them to excess but I am thankful to be able to Say they are nearly all gone. The grapes will be worth something when ripe and Father will have a splendid crop. His wine from the last year's grape is pronounced by far the best that has ever been made in the county & I think it the best native wine I ever tasted except the Cal. wine. I do not however, drink Father's wine often as I have lost my taste for wines. I am taking Sarasparilla and a tonic prepared by Dr. Boerstler and consequently do not need the wine.

I felt very uneasy about your health for some days but you do not speak of being indisposed except in one letter so I trust you have got quite well again. Today I recd your letter of the 9th with the draft for nine hundred and fifty dollars. You need not send me any more until you have paid all your debts and got a good start again. I have had a thousand dollars in Bank awaiting investment, for some time and as I can hear of no one desiring to borrow who will give mortgage on farming land I must get Govt. Bonds with it. That will make ($4.000,) four thousand in Govt. Bonds. I will pay my bills here, pay the children's traveling expenses and their six months tuition &c. out of the money you have just sent and make it last as long as possible. I am still receiving a little from Leavenworth. I think in all I have got over fifteen hundred dollars from there, some has gone for taxes, some for fees and the rest has gone towards the four thousand. What Boyle paid me was over twenty three hundred or near that. I will not take the notes secured by mortgage on the Topeka farm. Father was very much pleased today by your letter of the 11th.

Please say nothing to him of my anticipated movements for I wish to break it to him by degrees.

Did I tell you that Luke is on Gen'l Crawford's Staff? Gen'l C is Mrs. Capt. Washingtons brother. I had a letter today from Luke. I sent this morning a copy of the August No. of the U. S. S. Magazine to Mr. Reese. He sent me word that Mag's child was very ill. I have not heard from it this evening. Elizabeth was expected home from Mansfield today.

The children are delighted by your permission to them to go to Notre Dame. Kate is not going to teach any more and I would not know where to send Tommy here were I to remain.

I hope you will keep Hill in your service. If his time be really out I must redeem my promise & give him the town lot. Tell him to let me know where to send the deed to him. Should he remain with you he will probably prefer to wait awhile before taking the deed and assuming the responsibility of the taxes. Tell me what he prefers if you remember it,

It is William White and not Wagenhals who is in the Cavalry. If you could get him promoted or enable him in any way to earn a little more it would be a great kindness to John Garaghty and his daughter Mary who is William's wife. He was in very bad health for a long time after getting his discharge from the Infantry. He has never been very stout and was not brought up to labor but earned his living clerking &c.

Aunt Milly the colored woman has just come in my room. She wants me to take her as maid if I go South. I will make such arrangements at South Bend that I can leave a portion of the family there & take the rest to See you at any time.

Ever your affectionate.

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 22, 1864
[1864/08/22]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Both Minnie and I have written to you often lately. I am very sorry to know that your road has been broken by the rebel Cavalry, but I trust they will not be able at any time to damage you seriously. It has now been nearly four months since you started upon your long and most tedious campaign, You must feel nearly worn out. My last date from you is the eleventh. I did hope to hear today again but I was disappointed. I will miss to-morrow's mail for one day as I am going over to Circleville with Minnie & Lizzie to have a Dentist there operate upon their teeth before they go to school. When Minnie went to the Dentist in Cincinnati he told her that another tooth would require attention after a short time & that is the tooth that is to be plugged to-morrow. Lizzie's teeth are so irregular that I wish to have him examine them and do whatever he may consider most advisable. I will not, of course, have a new tooth extracted but some of the old ones may require to be removed. We intended to go today but it was raining hard this morning and I did not like to venture out. Next week I must take them to Notre Dame when I will see what can be done for winter quarters for myself.* I will remain but a few days as I do not like to be long away from the baby although he is as well and strong and healthy & fat & happy as possible with a kind good wet=nurse with plenty of nourishment. I told you that her husband is in the 17th Ohio Col Ward's regiment. She lost her babe & so loves mine for its sake. Rachel is as Smart & winning as ever. Elly insists upon going to Circleville with us & points out a defective tooth in her little mouth as evidence that she really must go. I intend to take her. She is still a great pet with her Grand Pa whom she loves dearly. Tommy is feasting on water melons. Very fine ones are in the market here from Circleville. We have had a great deal of rain and he has had fine paddling with his bare feet in the gutters. He is in very good health now that he will not be confined. Father continues very well, enjoys his rides, has fine crops at the farm & takes a lively interest in everything. He says our little Charley is so strong and fine a boy he ought to live to be eighty years of age. Charley laughs and crows very sweetly for him. I never saw a little fellow enjoy a bath more than Charley. He frets for it when the time draws near for it in the mornings and I cannot post pone it if I would, for nothing else will satisfy him when he begins to look for his tub of water. He does not like the dressing afterwards. He delights in being out doors & vehemently objects to a dark room. He sleeps all night long but he makes his nurse get up with him at five in the morning, In haste -

as ever

Ellen
[EES]

Circleville Ohio.,
August 24, 1864
[1864/08/24]

My Dear Papa
[WTS]

Mama brought Me and Minnie over to the Dentist yesterday and Ellie said she had a tooth that wanted plugging and Shure enough when the Doctor looked at it it did need plugging so we had it plugged I had too plugged and Minnie had one we met Tommy king here and he said he had got a letter from Willy king and that he took supper with you and stade all nite you have not ancered my other letter yet we are going home this eavinning Rachel calls Aunt Sissie's baby little Steele Rachels hare is just about as red as ever. We are going up to St Maryss next week She is going to take us up she says we must comence at the first lesson and stay till the last lesson She is going to bring the other children up Cristmes unless she goes down to see you Mrs Coverdale ceeps the house that we are staying at and she says that Mr Coverdoil is on your Staff She Says that he writes such long letters about you that if you ware a Lady She would feel jellace, of you Mama and Minnie send their love and Ellie a kiss from your affectionate daughter

Lizzie
[]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 24, 1864 Wednesday night.
[1864/08/24]

[WTS]

Night before last, dearest Cump, I wrote you quite a long letter at which time I was feeling much disappointed at not hearing from you that day. To-day however I had the happiness of receiving your letter of the 15th in which you say you had intended writing to Lizzie instead of me, I hope you will write to her before you write again to Minnie for if you do not she may think she has good cause to be jealous. We went over yesterday to Circleville to a Dentist there whom the Hunters had recommended very highly. There is no one here now to whom I would be willing to take the children. I found there was very little to be done to their teeth and my own teeth required no attention he said, He says that all of Lizzie's teeth are new teeth and that in a year or two they will all come straight and be a remarkably fine set of teeth. Two of her large teeth required each a small plug. Minnie had but one tooth to be plug'd and the cavity in that was very small indeed. Little Elly had one plug'd and I am really glad she went over as her tooth would have soon got to aching & had to be pulled before the new one was formed. Do you remember how often the Dentists here and in St. Louis refused to pull Willy's tooth when it was aching? How manly he was! He was only six years old when he went to the Dentist alone to have his tooth extracted. "We entertained an angel unawares" when we were blessed with Willy. Would to God I could have anticipated our loss - my heart might have been better prepared for the great blow when it fell, I received a letter today from Captain Smith written at Olney Illinois giving me a precise account of the fund for the monument. He handed over the fund to Capt. De Courcey. I intend to go to Cincinnati on my return from Notre Dame when I will see Capt. De Courcey & see the Monument. I must either see it erected or get its dimensions before I leave for the winter as I wish to have roses and other flowers planted where they will not be disturbed. His little green grave is the dearest spot of earth to me and my most sacred pleasure is to sit near it and invoke the spirit that will reanimate that precious dust on the Resurrection Day, Nothing of earth seems too hard to bear when I think of meeting Willy again. God grant us the same eternal destiny with him, our loved one gone before,

Our baby is growing so fast that even one or two nights make quite a difference in his appearance There never was a healthier brighter child. Sis's baby has not half the stamina but it is a very pretty little boy. Col. Steele spent several days here last week and returned to the works. He will not remain there as closely this winter as he did last winter. Father intends to sell part of the farm and if I am here he will make me release the mortgage of that much of it. I will try to evade it and think it likely I can do so. I have not received any of the interest due me on that note and if Father should sell much of it I think I would have to get him to pay me a portion of my money or give me some other security.

There will be no trouble, Mr Casserly says, about selling Lizzie's lot & paying Mr. Moss. He can do so at once if you send him an order to that effect. The one you did send must have been lost. He got the power of Attorney but not the special order from you to sell the lot. It is only a simple declaration on your part, that you wish the lot sold, that is required. Can you not send it to me?

I have mislaid or filed away the letter directing me to send money to West Point and I have neglected to Send and have even forgotten what it was you wished. Write me again about it and I will attend to it promptly. I cannot tell how to invest my thousand dollars. I will wait a little while - until the nominations &c. &c. I do not beleive there will be any combined resistence of the draft, Luke Clark was wounded in the arm. while serving in Gen'l. Crawford's Staff, so the paper states. I send the scrap to Charley. Why don't Charley write, Give him my best love & tell him I will try & write more frequently hereafter. All send love to you, particularly Sis -

Beleive me ever your truly affectionate,

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 26, 1864
[1864/08/26]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Suppose I give you an account of one day's occupation with me that you may realize the more strongly if possible, the difference - the wide difference between your days and mine. After my morning's bath &c. I took the baby and nursed and hugged and played with him until the nurse got her breakfast, then I took my breakfast in my room, then I had all the children in, with their manifold wants and complaints and requests after hearing which I read for a half hour or so and then bathed and dressed Master Charley. Sewing occupied the remainder of the morning until the children's early dinner at which both Father and I take our dinners also. After dinner I wrote two or three letters - one to poor Susan Bartley who has lost a little babe the age of Charley - then Elly & I took a nap after which our driver made his appearance & being told to bring out the pheaton Rachel Elly & I took a long pleasant ride, stopping here & there in search of a girl for Ellen Cox who is quite sick and poorly provided. Before returning to my room after dinner a visit had to be made to Aunt Sissy and the little baby and after our ride and tea both Grand Pa & Aunt Sissy had to be visited. Then we had a game of euchre in my room, Tommy & I beating Minnie and Lizzie - Since the game closed I have spent an hour reading and another hour with the baby in my arms - I have just laid him in the cradle & closed the door on him & his faithful nurse. He will not waken until nearly morning when he will have an abundance of the best of food with the keenest appetite for it. He grows astonishingly and is very strong and smart. He is not three months old and he is as large as babies that I have compared him with who are six months old.

I see that your letter on the enlistment of negroes excites almost universal admiration. I think it by far the best letter or expression of sentiment I have ever seen of yours in print. It is taken seriously by many and I beleive it will have a fine effect. If I do not forget it when I close my letter I will send you a scrap from the Commercial copied from a Boston paper shewing that you have awakened them to a clear view of the subject in all its branches, Your letter of the 13th reached me a day later than the one of the 15th. Minnie could not entirely conceal a feeling of slight mortification at hearing Lizzie pronounced the best letter writer of the family - No fear of my being jealous as the only merit I ever claimed as a correspondent was that of punctuality and perseverence and if ever I have failed in that it was when I feared I was tiresome. I feel so changed lately that I can scarcely express myself with any spirit or sense to anyone. You and Charley are the only persons I care about writing to at all and you see how careless I have become in my style to you. I must answer Captain Smith's letter tomorrow.

Saturday morning 27th

Minnie Lizzie & Tommy are invited to tea at their Aunt Reese's this evening. I beleive I was included in the invitation so I shall go over awhile. I did think I would arrange to stop at Mansfield on my way to Notre Dame but it takes two days to get there from here unless I were to go by carriage to Newark and it will cost me too much my other expenses are so heavy. Shoes for Minnie are five dollars a pair and the shoe time for them all comes around very fast

I must write a few lines to Charley. All send best love. All sympathise in the anxiety & hard labor of your present long continued campaign

Ever your affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 30, 1864
[1864/08/30]

[WTS]

I enclosed to you yesterday, dearest Cump the proof sheet of the Sept - No. of Mr. Bowman's sketch I did not write with it because I thought I could get in into the office in time for the mail if I did not wait to write but I beleive it was too late notwithstanding. We have some reason to expect good news from you soon. You indicated to me that you were about to make a demonstration upon Atlanta or upon Hood and the papers state that you had swung your army around, at last dates.

If possible I leave in the morning for Notre Dame with Minnie & Lizzie. Should I not feel well enough to go in the morning I will start on Thursday. Lizzie has quite made up her mind to it and will not I think be homesick enough to prevent her studying. I will get up there with the other children some time in October. I will go first to Cincinnati to have a picture taken from Willy's photograph and to See to the Monument which is to be completed this week. I told you that Capt. Smith had written to me and sent me a list of the names of the subscribers. The Captain must have been reinstated as he told me he was ordered to Nashville and was to leave next day. I will write you a few lines again this evening or tomorrow if I do not start.

As ever,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
August 30, 1864 Tuesday night late.
[1864/08/30]

Dearest Cump:
[WTS]

As soon as possible after tea I came to my room intending to write you a long letter but I had just closed a short business letter to Callahan in Leavenworth when Elizabeth Reese called. She has just left and it is now too late for a letter tonight as I am quite unwell.

Wednesday morning.

We said the beads and went to bed early last night and I feel very much refreshed by my good sleep. Master Charley wakes us bright and early every morning and no persuasion can keep him in bed a minute longer when he takes a notion to be up. He crosss and laughs and kicks and has to be jumped - nurses innumerable rush in to him. When I bathe him every morning I have such a crowd about me that I cant see either door - One wants to hold the pin cushion, one the starch bag one hand the clothes and all want to pat and caress the naked baby. Rachel calls him "the little fellow." Lizzie's deepest regret at leaving home seems to be on account of the baby. Tommy is afraid to go with me to Notre Dame for fear I will leave him and he cannot make up his mind to Stay there until after the grape season.

Wednesday night;

I have had busy day getting all ready for starting in the morning, dearest Cump. The children have gone to bed and I must also get ready to take my rest for we must be up bright and early. We go to Newark in carriage and must be there by two o'clock. I do hate to leave the baby but I need feel no fear about him he is so healthy and has such a good nurse. Rachel is not entirely well and I am rather uneasy about her but I will not be gone more than a week I think. Give my love to Charley and tell him. I will write to him from South Bend. He must write to me soon again or I will stop writing to him.

I have made my will and had it duly witnessed so if you and I should be taken together or near the Same time from the children all that I have can be used for their education. I have named Philemon and John Sherman as Executors they both having consented to it. I am sorry I cannot stop at Mansfield but this time I cannot stay so long from home.

Ever dearest Cump your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

South Bend Indiana.,
September 4, 1864
[1864/09/04]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

According to promise I got the children at school in time to have their minds composed and settled down to Study by the first day of school. On Thursday morning Sep. 1st we left home. Father wished to go to Newark to See about buying a new buggy for himself so he insisted upon escorting the party that far. Father Minnie Tommy & the trunks filled and loaded Father's carriage and John Sears drove old Sam in the pheaton with Lizzie & me for a load. We left home at a little before eight and got to Newark about one o'clock. Old Sam would not lose sight of John's team and the noise of our wheels fretted them so much that John had to stop and ask us to keep back. It was utterly impossible to hold Sam back when by a turn in the road we lost sight of the carriage - he is very hard mouth'd and can trot as fast as any horse but generally he is quite lazy, We left Newark after two and got to Monroeville by seven or eight where we staid all night, coming on next day to this place where we arrived at half past four in the afternoon. I kept the girls here with me, at the Hotel, until yesterday afternoon - that is about twenty four hours and then I took them out, and entered them regularly, paying the first term for both. Poor Lizzie felt very down hearted but Elly Ewing cheered her up and when Tommy and I went out today we found Lizzie as little disposed to be homesick as Minnie. I had them gather me a box of pebbles from the river bank where Willy often played which I intend to put around his grave I will take a rose or flower from the college grounds and plant there too. How it changes the world to have a child like him laid in the cold bosom of the earth. My heart can never be fresh again. Mary Ewing is at St. Mary's having come up with her children the day before I came. I did not come with them because I was too unwell to get ready the day before they started, and their party was so large I did not wish them to wait for me. So large a party often find a difficulty in getting seats and embarass instead of helping one another. I had no difficulty on the way. The place here is beautiful - I mean the Academy & College - and a good class of pupils is coming in. I am well satisfied that the children are as pleasantly situated as they could be anywhere in the country. I took a room at the Hotel here although Mother Angela had a room for me & urged me to Stay there. I wish to make arrangements for spending the winter and perhaps for a permanant residence here. Mr. Colfax was not here when I arrived on Friday but he called to See me this evening although it is Sunday and he has been home but a few hours. He is a great friend of John Sherman & John is a friend of his too. John wrote to him about me and also sent me a letter of introduction to him which I left with his housekeeper yesterday. He does not wish to dispose of his house but he says if I can make arrangements with the couple who live in it to board this winter I can occupy it during his absence. I will see them in the morning. He will leave early in November and by Spring I could get a house if I conclude to remain here and I think I shall as I am very much pleased with the town. You have so many ardent admirers here that when the papers came in yesterday morning announcing the capture of Atlanta & the discomforture of Hood's army I became quite a hero myself in the light of your reflected glory. Gentlemen called on me as well as ladies & in such a way that I could not decline to See them & to crown all they serenaded me and made some very pretty speeches complimenting you, indeed lauding you "to the skies" but no higher than you deserve, I knew long ago what you were capable of, so I am not surprised by what you accomplish nor overwhelmed by the praises you win. Some very agreeable gentlemen are here and it is I assure you quite a lively place. Our "Willy" is spoken of by your friends and admirers as familiarly as if they had known him and so kindly & in such sincere tones that I cannot doubt the sympathy. Of course I do not thrust my sacred thoughts of him before even sympathetic friends. I cannot speak of him with composure so I keep him in my heart, & seem to others as happy as I can. I am very anxious to get the particulars of your late engagement. I hope dear Charley is safe. Tommy says "Give my love to Papa and tell him he promised to write to me as soon as he got Atlanta & now I am looking for the letter"

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 12, 1864
[1864/09/12]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Great demonstrations of joy have been made over the country on the occasion of your unparalleled success - compliments & eulogiums innumerable have been heaped upon you and letters of congratulation have poured in upon me. Among the rest Van Vliet has written to me inviting me to make them a visit in New York when you come on and holding out the inducement to me of a fine catholic church very near them.

I have not written to you since my return from South Bend last week, because I have been quite unwell from a severe cold I took on the way home. I wrote to you from there and I also wrote a few lines to Charley. If the young gentleman does not write to me soon I will drop him from my list of correspondants.

I hope you will retain Hill in your service although his time has expired. Should Carter return to you, as he proposed to do you must not give him any money on the old account as I have settled it in full and have overpaid him three dollars. I submitted my calculations to Philemon who found them correct. - Joe Niles the tailor of Charley's Co. came to Lancaster on Saturday and leaves today. He looks very neat and trim and does credit to the 13th. He says he would reinlist if it were not that his Mother is old and he is an only child.

I have made arrangements for boarding in South Bend this winter in Mr. Colfax's house. He has an old couple in the house and boards with them when at home. I will write more at length this evening.

As ever,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 12, 1864
[1864/09/12]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

This morning I wrote a short letter in time for the mail which leaves a little too early to be convenient for me. On Saturday Joe Niles of "Co A" 13th Regulars came to Lancaster and spent the afternoon treating Master Tom to candy top &c. and yesterday they went together to the grave yard where I presume he expected to See the Monument erected, but although finished it is not yet here. He says he will stop in Cincinnati and see it.

Joe wants a permit to Sell military goods, or something of the kind to your armies and I know that for love of Willy you will give it to him if in your power.

Let me know if he gets it. Mr. Fall of California made us a visit today interesting Father very much in his accounts of the Silver Mines and the Mills in Nevada. He has retrieved his fortunes. Ben Nisbet he tells me is exceedingly dissipated and neglects his family which consists of a wife & three children.

Do what you can for Joe Niles.

Ever your affectionate,

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 13, 1864
[1864/09/13]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I have two letters to forward to you one of which I have just received. I trust you will be able to deliver the one addressed to the lady in Athens Georgia as I feel much more sympathy for her, greiving over the loss of a child than I do for the young girl who is so anxious to join her lover. Girls should wait for their lovers to come to them and if they never come, take it as an evidence that they were intended to remain single. I have no sympathy for the after troubles of girls who are so very keen to be married, but perhaps you have, and will give her a permit to join her lover in his rebel abode. She may not be so anxious to get married as to console him, & if so, her motive is of course good. The other lady I hope will meet with kindness at your hands unless she should prove to be a worse rebel than her Sister represents. The letter from the young lady is addressed to Mrs. Daugherty who was expected to write to you but she prefers to Send the letter itself through me.

I am told that Some of your friends in town are about to present you with a fine horse worth $1.700 - seventeen hundred dollars - They all think you will have to take Richmond yet. Love to Charley.

Ever yours in haste

Ellen E. Sherman.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 17, 1864 Saturday morning.
[1864/09/17]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

The baby has a very bad cold settled on his lungs and his cough is so troublesome that the dear little fellow keeps me disturbed very much in the night I intended to write you a long letter this morning but owing to my disturbed rest during the night I overslept myself this morning and now I fear I will not have time to Say the half of what I wished. We have been having just such weather as we had this time last year when we had the chimney built to our tent and kept fires. It is growing somewhat milder now but the air is still cool and the nights call for warm covering, I hope you all enjoy your quiet in the City of Atlanta. I am charmed with your order expelling the inhabitants of Atlanta as it has always seemed to me preposterous to have our Government feeding so many of their people - their insolent women particularly - for they are responsible for the war and should be made to feel that it exists in sternest reality. Yesterday I wrote to Charley and enclosed letters which I had received relative to Luke and his wound. It is still doubtful whether he will recover the use of his arm and it is his right arm. He is in very low spirits or was, until Mrs. Washington made him a visit. I presume he feels somewhat at a loss in his new position. If you have time I would be glad to have you write him a letter instructing him what to read and how to get over little difficulties that you probably know he may have to contend with.

Tell Charley that Squire McVeigh was instantly killed yesterday by the upsetting of the Columbus stage. His little boy ten years of age had both legs broken and his wife was also injured. It was a terrible shock to the community and the news broke up a union meeting which Gov. Brough was addressing.

For nearly a month I have had no letter from you except the short one in pencil which you wrote below Atlanta. We were glad to hear you were well and had abundant supplies. You have probably heard of the splendid horse which your Lancaster friends are to Send you. One of Fashion's colts "Bunks" but the name is to be changed to "Atlanta." Charley knows the horse -

The Catholic Telegraph is out in loudest praise of you, "who during four long scorching months amid the rocks ridges & barren acres of Northern Georgia plucked victory from the banners of the South; exalted the fame & sturdy valor of the children of the North, placed our cause beyond chance or mishap & stamped his name upon the public heart - upon the best page of our history - upon a monument more enduring than brass & which will defy the storms & black rain of a thousand years - upon the white tablets of our arms - Our victories," This is only the close of the article which contains much more in your praise. Quite a change since they could not bring themselves to publish Grant's report of the battle of Shiloh entire, because it gave praise to you.

John Sherman is out making speeches & I am glad of it for it would be shamful to have the Butternut ticket succeed with that Hypocrite and weak coxcomb McClellan at its head. The Country would not be worth fighting for if placed in such miserable hands as that.

The children - are all well. Lizzie has not written to me yet. May Willy's pure spirit be your guide to his happy home in heaven is the hourly prayer of your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Cincinnati Ohio.,
September 22, 1864
[1864/09/22]

[WTS]

It seems as if I were never to have another letter from you dearest Cump. I left home on Tuesday after waiting anxiously for letters but flattered myself one would be forwarded by today. I have been on my feet so much going about the City that I am greatly fatigued and scarce able to write and would not attempt to do so were it not that I fear you would be uneasy if you do not hear from me constantly. I am staying at Mr Slevin's and have Elly & Rachel with me. I brought all the pictures I have of Willy and I am going to take them and take Rachel in the morning to Beard's Studio when he will see if he can likely make a good picture of Willy Getting the lines and dimensions from the picture and the hair eyes & complexion from Rachel I think he can. I have been to See the monument which is not yet completed. Tomorrow I will write you about it -

I am overwhelmed with compliments as the wife of Gen'l Sherman. Give my love to dear Charley. Tommy was opposed to coming here with me as the grapes were to be gathered this week.

Ever faithfully

Ellen -
[EES]

Cincinnati Ohio.,
September 25, 1864 Sunday evening.
[1864/09/25]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

As I wrote you before, I came down here on Tuesday. I would remain longer but they write me that the baby has a very bad cough and I feel so uneasy I must go home tomorrow. I have been staying at Mr Slevin's but Capt. Moulton has been exceedingly kind in escorting me about &c. &c. I enclose a sketch - a portion of which is the design which is being executed by order of Capt. Smith for the Battalion. The drum - first the base with shield, then the drum the spears & flag - of purest italian marble on a base of limestone is the monument ordered by the Battalion & is to cost five hundred dollars the money being in the hands of Capt. De Courcey. The rest of the design - viz - the canopy I would like to order and send it to you for your approval and consent. I would like it of Dayton marble on a base of limestone - It would cost a good deal but I would like something about Willy's grave to indicate his faith for he died a christian hero and dearly as he loved us he was resigned to go at God's call. Through Christ's death upon the cross Willy gained entrance into heaven and I would like the cross to surmount all other emblems over his sacred dust. Should any of the other children be called to join Willy this monument would do for them also as there will be room for many inscriptions on the different sides I am coming down here next week if Charley gets over his cough & I would like to get your answer in time to let Mr Rule know how to finish the monument. I have the money by me & can pay for it myself if you like the design. Perhaps you will have time to draw a more perfect one. Please write to me promptly about it.

Hill wrote to me to Send you some woollen' shirts drawers socks and some handkerchiefs all of which I will send soon. I hope you will not give Hill up but make him stay with you on wages if he does not reinlist, If you do not have Hill with you, you will not live six months for you will wear damp clothing and go without proper care. Do make it to his interest to Stay - One short letter from you is all that I have had from you since you entered Atlanta

I am not very well -

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 29, 1864
[1864/09/29]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Since my return home on Monday I have received two letters from you and Judge Moore has called and left the papers sent by him. I have not yet read the official report because I have been so very busy since I got it and I wished to wait until I could have an uninterrupted reading. Charley has had a severe cold on his lungs and a cough. It is a most obstinate attack and I really think it is asthma. He does not lose either appetite or flesh with it but keeps cheerful and bright but I pay him great attention to keep him from further cold if possible. It was on his account that I hurried home from Cincinnati before I was ready. Father is going down on Monday and I will go with him - No I will not go on Monday but on Tuesday when he can have a room ready for me. Boyle is to bring his family up to meet us in Cincinnati and make the visit there with us. Boyle is very happy and exultant over your success. I have had letters from him & Henrietta congratulating me. I saw good Col. Swords in Cin: and Col. McKim also called on me. McKim has been ordered to Cin: much to the indignation of the friends of Col. Swords who has thus been left in the discharge of small duties and robbed of the dignity of position as he has been hitherto slighted in regard to rank. Meigs seems to have power - no doubt through Halleck - who is malignant at heart towards those whom he dislikes. I am sorry Col. Swords has been so treated for Government has not a more honest honorable faithful zealous officer in service.

You make a little mistake yourself in accusing me of having let my secrets out when in South Bend. There was nothing said about my going there at the Serenade - A very large meeting assembled before the Hotel with the Band when after some music Dr. Kenrick introduced me to crowd from the window & not balcony - The Dr. then thanked them in my name for the compliment and after that followed some good speeches and enthusiastic cheering &c. &c. Tommy and I had fully intended & much preferred to hear the serenade from our room but some ladies called & requested me to come to the parlour and under the circumstances I could not refuse. The only way I let my secret out was by making necessary arrangements for boarding & making enquiries as to the chance of leasing a good house. I have seen only one notice of the Serenade & in that nothing is said of my intention to remain in South Bend. Did you see anything more than a simple notice of the Serenade? It was a very pretty Compliment and handsomely done.

The Lancaster people really intend to present you with some testimonial. At first the horse Bronx was thought of, but Mr Hunter Mr. Brassee Father Philemon Mr Daugherty Mr. Martin & others were dissatisfied with the nature of the gift and after holding a meeting and discussing the subject fully they have determined to make the present a service of plate or something that you can hand to your children. May God enable us to place our hearts firmly upon what we are to hand up to Willy in his heavenly home. This day last year was the first morning he was unable to dress or to get up from that miserable berth on the "Atlantic." Monday will be the anniversary of his death & I cannot travel on that day unless compelled to do so. I hope you will be prompt in writing to me about the monument.

I am interrupted & close in haste for the mail -

Ever yours

Ellen-
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
September 30, 1864
[1864/09/30]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Henry Reese tells me that Captain Dayton has resigned, You will now have an opportunity of appointing Mr. Miner's son - the one you remember whom Father was interested in last winter. Dayton is giving up a position which some of the very best young men of the country are most anxious to hold and which the best families would consider most desirable for their most cherished sons. He received the appointment without having enlisted as other Staff Officers did and he fails to appreciate the advantages and favors he has had. Let him go - for nothing less than a Brigadiers commission will satisfy him. He was risen in two & a half years from pay master's clerk to Captain on your Staff and he recd the appointment through no merit or sacrifice on his own part but through the recommendation of you & Father all of which he has failed to appreciate or acknowledge. I am glad he has given you the opportunity to appoint some one else.

Tom Ewing is in a tight place shut up in the fort at Pilot Knob. Ellen has another daughter. I wrote you yesterday & will write soon again.

Ever your affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
October 1, 1864
[1864/10/01]

[WTS]

I could not let much of a secret out dearest Cump for I have only determined to spend the winter at South Bend and shall make no arrangements for remaining longer until I have seen whether the place will suit me as a residence. It is even possible that I will not spend the entire winter there since I learn that the climate is severely cold and Charley proves to be asthmatic. Lizzie seems well contented and should she get over the next two months without sickness or home sickness I will feel that I can safely leave her with Minnie.

We are all quite well but Elly who is suffering from cold which I think will pass off. Charley does not deserve a letter from me for if he has no time to write letters of any length he should have politeness enough to acknowledge the receipt of one in ten or twenty of mine Yet I wish you would see that he gets this as it is a few lines on his own private affairs.

Ever your affectionate,

Ellen
[EES]

Cincinnati Ohio.,
October 4, 1864
[1864/10/04]

[WTS]

Father & I came here today, dearest Cump, and are stopping at the Burnet House where they have reserved good rooms for us & seem disposed to treat us very kindly. I did not get through to my satisfaction when I was here before but hurried home on account of the baby who was not well. I left him much better, indeed, nearly over his cold. We will remain here only two or three days. This is my birthday. This day last year we left Memphis on that too Sad journey. What agony we can endure and live! When I look back upon that time & recall my utter desolation and woe - the overwhelming sense of loss with which I wakend in the night or in the mornings I wonder how I ever recovered or how I can look with interest upon anything earthly now, Blessed happy spirit of my son pray that my sorrow may purify more & more my erring heart. Well have we been taught the utter vanity of human ambition. Here you have accomplished all that man could do in your position - You have won for yourself through merit a name which will be honored by the brave and true as long as history lasts and your eldest son, your darling - the one to whom that name would have been most dear is lying in the cold bosom of the earth deaf to all sound of human glory. But his spirit - and it was that we loved - is in bliss immortal & unutterable, wraped with love in bosom of his God & Father & robed in the glory of a soul redeemed and spotless. Through what further agony pain & sorrow must we go to meet him, to be united forever & forever. We know not, but when I look to the end I do not shrink from intervening trials and death with all its horrors seems most desirable.

After yesterday, the anniversary of his agony & death I cannot write except of him and yet I ought not to make you sad I sent you the model for the canopy which I propose to erect over the beautiful design which has been executed by order of Capt. Smith for the Battalion. We will have a new cemetary soon when suitable decorations can be kept in order. I propose to have the design that is now nearly completed put up before I leave and the one which we may order it will take several months to make and I will not have it erected before we have the new cemetary, If you do not like the design I sent you I hope you will draw a model yourself & let me order it at once for in your absence it is my cheif pleasure to decorate Willy's tomb & shew my love for his past mortality in the only way left me on earth.

We are feeling the greatest uneasiness about Tom & I will enclose you in this a letter giving all the information we have of him. Father feels very uneasy. Bishop Rosecrans was on the train with us from Morrow down- he was very polite & agreeable. Philemon is going to South Bend this week for Mary who has been Spending several weeks there. He is to take a large box of grapes to the children. Minnie seems more anxious than Lizzie to have me come up. I am surprised that Lizzie does so well, Tommy is determined not to go until all the fruit is gone He is luxuriating in grapes now. We are expecting Charley to make us a visit. We hear that he has resigned & would like to see him promoted to Some position which would give him other than Staff duty. If you will send us a recommendation for promotion Father can get him a Brigadier's Commission when Tom resigns or before, on the understanding that Tom is to resign. The appointment of Colonels was made from men who belonged to the Congressional districts from which the regiments came - that rule cut Charley out and the only exception made to it was in favor of the democracy by the promotion of Stafford of our town who left the shoe=makers bench and started out with Co "A" of the 1st O. I. when the War broke out & who has for sometime been Major of the Regiment. Lt. Col. Warner of your Staff has a regiment. I enclose you a scrap apropos of Dayton's resignation.

This letter I commenced last evening when Willock called & spent the entire evening. Col McKim also called. I am preparing some flannels &c, to Send to you & Col. McKim will have them forwarded I fear you will shorten your life by your in'cessant labors. When will you take a rest. I hope Hill will return to you & that you will always keep him. I have not heard from him yet. Love to Charley if still with you.

Ever your affectionate

Ellen -
[EES]

Cincinnati Ohio.,
October 7, 1864
[1864/10/07]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

I wrote you the day after I got here. Father went home this morning but I was not quite ready to go and concluded to wait and go up with Mr. Willock tomorrow. He is going up to vote on Tuesday and to See Mrs. Willock & Kate off & to lock up the house. Mrs Willock is going east to spend a few weeks after which she is to come to Cincinnati to Spend the winter. Kate has been cordially invited and is prepared to Spend the winter with John & Cecelia in Washington. John has purchased a house in Washington and Cecelia is going on before John does to have the house ready for him. Kate goes with her. Jimmie Willock and Willy (only the age of Minnie) both have work here and earn more than a living. Gen'l Hooker has been appointed to command this Dept. and got here this morning. Charley Hoyt is chief Quarter Master of the Dept. & has been here several days. I have seen him often. He looks very well indeed and would not look much older were he not a little bald. He heard last evening of the very dangerous illness of his Father who has been failing for some time. Gen'l. Hooker has not called on me but I presume he does not know I am here as he got here only this morning. When I got in from shopping today I found the card of "Jno. G. Nicolay private Secretary to the President of the United States" Mrs. Gen'l Logan has been here and I saw her in the parlour several times. She has a pretty little daughter, an only child. A Miss Miller of this City was to have been married today to Capt. York but he failed to make his appearance yesterday. At first I heard he had been captured but today George Stanbery & Phil told me that he had merely been delayed. The young lady is highly Spoken of and is well connected. Phil Stanbery has not yet recovered the use of his hand & arm - he is still undergoing treatment and can almost hold a knife but cannot hold a pen. He is very anxious to return to the Army and will do so as soon as he recovers. I have just been the recipient of a very handsome compliment. A most delightful serenade which Col. Swords acknowledged for me. The Col. is so good and so friendly and so fond of you and his wife is so lovely in character & manner that I shall ever rank them among our most valued friends. Mrs. Swords is not here now. Col. McKim has been sent here & I beleive Col. Swords is thus placed in a somewhat subordinate position - he feels very badly but deports himself admirably - Mrs Swords has lost her Father. I have seen Mr. & Mrs. Larz Anderson and a good many others & many have called on me whom I did not see as I have been out a great deal, You know Susan is living here in a very good house on Broadway which they are fitting up handsomely. Judge Bartley is very anxious to live as well as his neighbours & is prepared with means for fitting up and well establishing his family. Capt. Moulton has resigned & intends to practice law here. He is now in Washington & I regret that he is for he was so very clever and kind to me. Everybody is ready to Serve me in anyway when they know me to be the wife of Gen'l Sherman and the feeling seems to arise not alone from admiration but from gratitude also for what you have done. And well they may be grateful to you. It seems to me longer now that it ever did before since I saw you and sometimes I feel that we are never to meet again & that my future is to be entirely devoted to memories of the past. I have had a likeness of Willy taken by Beard from the deguerreotype I had. I had Rachel here too and he has succeeded admirably I think Father saw it yesterday & considers it excellent. It is not entirely finished, The monument ordered by the Battalion will be finished in about ten days. It is most beautiful. The leading catholics in L. intend to purchase a new scite for a cemetery. Give my love to Charley. Take good care of your health. May God forever bless you & may Willy be your guardian angel -

Ellen -
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
October 11, 1864
[1864/10/11]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

The evening before I left Cincin: I wrote you; that was Friday, I have not written since and this is Tuesday but when you reflect that I hear from you only about once in two or three weeks you will not be surprised that I unconsciously let so many days go by without writing, Every hour indeed every minute of my time has been employed since I came home. The baby and the other children with fall sewing and preperations for leaving have kept me constantly busy. I sent you from Cincinnati six flannel shirts six flannel drawers six pairs of socks and seven pocket handkerchiefs all marked. Col. McKim had them packed and forwarded to you. The flannels were presented to you by Mr. Jones a merchant of Pearl St. A pair of boots were sent to be packed for you, a present from a Mr Awhl - I beleive that is the way the name is spelled Charley does not pretned to write to me. I have not had one line from him for more than two months.

You will see by the papers that Tom Ewing has been distinguishing himself. He will resign as soon as the Missouri troubles have been quieted & then we want to See Charley appointed Brig Genl. We want your recommendation to be used by Tom or Father at the time of Tom's resignation the children interrupt me so constantly I cannot tell what I am writing. Elly has been quite unwell but Dr. Barlow is curing her. She looks thin and pale but Rachel makes up in health & flesh what Elly lacks - Speaking of Charley - he writes us that he has been appointed Ins. Gen'l. of the Division and that he cannot come home as we had hoped he would for a short visit. Col. Moore has spent as many months at home as Charley has days since the war commenced but I pity Fanny and would dislike to injure him on her account. Charley writes to Father once in a great while but he does not even take time to Say that he has heard from me.

Wednesday Oct 12th.

This dearest Cump is Tommy's birthday & he is eight years old. I am happy to say that he is a good boy now and that his goodness is reflected in cheerfulness in his face. Willy Cox is with him almost constantly and he is happy to have a companion in his out door sports. The catholic ladies are holding a fair which opens this evening & Tommy feels that it is quite apropos as it offers a pleasant way of celebrating his birthday. He and Willy Cox & Georgy Krieder who are all the Same age are going together & I am to treat them.

I have about made my plans for the future and I feel in consequence more tranquility of mind. For this winter, as I told you, I am going to board in the house of Mr. Colfax the Speaker of the House of Rep. He is a widower and a nice old couple live in his house and board him. They have agreed to board me this winter during his absence. Mr. L'Hommedieu has sent me a pass for self & family over the road from Cin: to Toledo and a gentleman who does not write his name very plainly has sent me one from Toledo to South Bend. I have one from Morrow to Cin & Mrs. Slevin has invited me to Stop at her house with the family when en route. So you see the trip will not cost me very much. The children are anticipating my arrival with great impatience but I cannot get there before the 15th of Nov. I have written to John and got the right to the Sherman homestead and there I intend to put my Lancaster fixtures and to spend such time as I may be obliged by Father's illness at any period to be in this place. We can live pleasantly there in the Summer time without much expense and I will be no encumbrance to any other family who may be with Father. Where I will spend the most of my time the future must determine. But I must have a place of my own to stay at when here for if I return to Father's house at any time I again become a fixture here. I have told Father half a dozen times that I intend to spend the winter in South Bend He urged various reasons against it and now flatters himself that his will is law no matter who is sacrafised I told him with Minnie & Lizzie at South Bend and Tommy who ought to be there, there was more to attract me there than here when he would be in Washington but he hooted at the idea and said I had better bring Lizzie home and he now thinks I am going to Stay,

He little appreciates that the great attraction to my heart to this place is Willy's grave. All the attention & compliments which your fame have won for me are nothing to the pleasure of seeing a flower bloom on that. I will see the monument erected before I leave and plant roses about it and then I will be ready to go for the winter. The baby is growing finely. He has a first rate nurse and is very good & very happy. The fifteen hundred dollars which were collected for the horse are still in Bank awaiting the action of the committee who are to select a service of plate to be presented instead of the horse. Last night I recd your dispatch from Kingston & Tommy is just starting down with my reply. Father & Philemon Mr. Hunter & Mr Daugherty each subscribed $100. towards the gift to you - I will get a list as soon as I can politely. Mr. Martin also contributed $100 - Yesterday was election day. I look upon the country as hopelessly dismembered should McClellen be elected but of that there is no danger - these elections will shew how the Nov. ones will be. All send love to you

As ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
October 16, 1864
[1864/10/16]

[WTS]

So long a time has elapsed, dearest Cump, since I had the happiness of receiving a letter from you that it seems almost unnatural to me to be writing for I feel that my letters not being answered are not received but might as well be addressed to a myth. However, write I must, for if I do not you will have real cause of complaint - whereas I know that when you do not write you cannot. I have written to you very often.

We were pained to hear that Luke is very dangerously ill at the Hospital in Philadelphia. Mrs. Dr. Carnac wrote to me about him and said that he had seen a Priest & been prepared for death She is not a catholic but she wrote in the highest terms of Luke and says he bears his intense suffering in the spirit of a soldier and a christian. I have written to her and hope to hear again tomorrow but I fear to hear the worst. Tell Charley, for I am not writing to him now not having received even the briefest acknowledgement from him of the last twenty four letters. You have had Charley appointed Inspector Gen'l of the Division of the Mississippi. Can you not secure him the rank of Brig Genl? Send on a recommendation and we will have Tom Ewing secure the appointment. You will have seen, before you get this, that Tom Ewing distinguished himself in Missouri. Father feels very proud of it. but he, like myself, feels distressed about Luke. Tom Ewing is to be here soon to See his new daughter who is then to be baptised with Minnie & Tommy Ewing as Sponsors Philemon & I standing proxy. The ladies of the catholic congregation have just had a fair at which they cleared two thousand two hundred dollars.

The new Priest gave the catholics a sermon today from the text - "Render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's" &c in which he told them their duty to their legally appointed rulers and told them they owed to the Authorities of the Government respect & obedience in word & in work & that those who failed or refused to render obedience & respect purchased their own damnation. He is a young holy Priest with no political bias & they knew that he announced the teachings of the church so I think they must have felt pretty badly for nine tenths of the catholics are disloyal & would rather vote for Jeff Davis or McClellan than for you or Father or any honest patriot. By the bye I wish you would tell me your opinion of McClellan now, Be sure to do so for I am anxious to know it & I have right to know it. For me to be ignorant of your views in the present crisis looks as if there was no communication between us & gives rise to suspicions and remarks.

Edward L. Moore, Co D. 39th O. V. I. Col. Myers is a private a young man of good habits good family and good education. His Mother is a woman of refinement, a widow with a daughter who has hitherto aided in their support by teaching but whose health is failing rapidly. The only other child she ever had was a son older than this son, who died in the service. She appeals to you through me to secure the advancement of this son or his appointment to Some clerkship or something that will give him increased pay. He sends home nearly all his wages but prices are so high that they are very little in comparison with their absolute wants as his Mother is in miserable health as well as his Sister. The Sister was Governess or taught in a school at Baton Rouge before the war broke out. Arch B'p. Purcell wrote to you about him. Col Myers, of the 39th is an ardent admirer of yours, Do something for the poor young fellow if you can - your heart would be touched could you see his Mother who with her other troubles is mourning the son whose life was sacrificed to the country.

Henry Reese shewed me a letter he had recd from Dayton in which he said he had tendered his resignation. Since he has been foolish and ungrateful I hope his resignation will be accepted and I send you the name of the gentleman who has sought the position for his son & whom Father is so anxious to have preferred. I have written to Mr. Miner to send you the initials and whereabouts of his son - Of course I will not say that he can certainly get the appointment but that there is an opening. Elizabeth Reese shewed so much kind concern for me & the baby when I was so ill that I sent for her to come over as soon as I was able to talk and we are all good friends again. She has agreed to have the house all ready for me any time & Says she is glad I am going to take it. I wish you could see Charley riding out in the little carriage the children all running after in a glee I am anxious about your health.

Ever yours -

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
October 19, 1864
[1864/10/19]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

More than a month now since I have had one line from you - surely the Government requires sacrifices from wives as well as from husbands. I have begun to feel really anxious to have another letter from you altho' I know the desire is unreasonable as you have not one moment to Spare for writing and probably do not get even time enough for necessary sleep. Indeed I am sure you do not.

Father wrote you about the horse which your friends here thought of sending you. The money. $1500. fifteen hundred dollars was deposited in Bank and at a meeting of the gentlemen it was agreed to change the nature of the gift & make it one that can be handed down to posterity and that will not be so expensive on your hands as a horse which no one can use. I beleive they propose to enlarge the amount which is to be paid for the silver.

I enclose you a letter from Frank Dittoe the eldest son of Peter Dittoe of Somerset. Do give some kind of an answer as his aspirations are not high. Poor old Mr. Dittoe is made unhappy by the fact that some of his boys are copperheads. I understand that two of the Dominican Priests at St. Joseph's have been drafted. I hope they will not be able to get substitutes.

The name of the young gentleman that I hoped you might appoint to Dayton's place, on your Staff, is Charles W. Miner. Capt Co. C. 22nd Reg. O. V. V. I. now at Little Rock Arkansas. I hope you can give him the place.

Philemon went to Cincinnati today and from there he will go to Notre Dame for Mary who has not yet got home. Minnie & Lizzie are perfectly well contented. I am surprised at Lizzie but the fact that she expects me up there keeps her happy, Tommy has been enjoying the work at the farm this fall - the grape gathering, the wine making, the apple picking, the apple butter making and the cane boiling and the chestnut gathering. Next come walnuts but I will ward off the gathering of them as hand and clothers become too badly stained in the process.

I have not heard from Luke since Saturday. When Mrs. Carnac wrote she thought his case hopeless. She said he had had the Priest and his mind was calm. I wrote to her to bury him as an Officer and if necessary I would defray the expenses, I am very anxious to hear again. The poor fellow was so eager to come to Lancaster after he was wounded, but from the first, absolute quiet was strictly enjoined.

All the children are in fine health. The baby has the Asthma but he is as fat and happy as possible. All send love to Papa Your little daughters will scarcely know you and were you to meet them unexpectedly you would not know them they have grown so. Rachel's resemblance to Willy would strike you anywhere. I have written to Mr Rule that we will not at present order the canopy. I had directed him to Send up the design ordered by the Battalion & erect it but the canopy I wished to have made by the time we get a new cemetery when this could be lifted from the base and placed within the other. The larger one would answer for six persons and would do for as many of our children as will likely die unmarried and for me, leaving it necessary to erect only one other for our family and that for you. I wrote yesterday to him to inscribe on the reverse side from the one used for the Battalion the name and age as follows -

William T. Sherman.

son of

Wm. T. and Ellen E. Sherman.

Born in

San Francisco Cal; June 8th 1854.

Died in

Memphis Tenn: Oct 3rd 1863.

In his Spirit there was no guile.

On the two other tablets I ordered to be inscribed the following verses.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

Psalm c. x. v. i. i. i.

In thy tabernacles I shall dwell forever: I shall be protected under the covert of thy wing.

Psalm L. X.

This does not in any way interfere with the design of the donors for they wrote to me that tablets would be left for us to have what inscriptions we wished. I hope you will like these. Father approved them and selected them from a number I had culled - Love to Charley.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
October 31, 1864
[1864/10/31]

Dearest Cump:
[WTS]

I wrote you a day or two since & I have this morning written to Charley. The baby is quite sick. He has had a cold on his lungs for some time and now instead of getting better it is worse and I have the most serious apprehensions that he will never recover altho' I do not think him in very immediate danger. He is sick enough to die in a week should he continue to grow worse. I will write you tomorrow if he is no better. He is a bright pretty little fellow and had got so nice & fat and was so lively and playful and so fond of the children and of me and of all that nursed him. Some times he would go to one and sometimes to another but he always had his choice. We are taking the best possible care of him and you know I will do all in my power to keep him. It may be that Willy has prayed for him to come to him, and that God intends to take him too in innocence and purity. If so he is to be envied and not pitied, but we would all be greived to lose our little pet,

Father called with me this morning to See the Paulist Fathers who are giving a mission here. Mr Walworth & Mr Young had gone out but we saw Father Deshon who says he attended our wedding & went up to the house with you that night and helped you to get ready &c. He talks of you, as I said before, with great interest and kindness. The mission closes tonight and Father will attend church to hear the sermon. Church is so near he can get there without much trouble.

I will write again tomorrow if the baby continues sick. If he is better I may not write for two or three days. Minnie & Lizzie write to you often they tell me. Tommy goes to the farm every day to see the cane boiling grape & apple gathering and a thousand other things. All send love to you.

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
November 5, 1864
[1864/11/05]

[WTS]

While Capt. Coverdale sat with me this afternoon your letter of the 29th written at Rome was handed me and since he left I have read it, It fills my heart to breaking to hear you speak of your greif for our lost darling. Lost only for the present - taken by our good God & Father from the cares and sorrows of the world and our own hearts bruised and sad'nd that we might learn to place them upon joys above for which our souls were created. God knows I look forward with zest to no other joys - but my greatest grief in his loss is (after my sympathy for you) that I ever could have looked or spoken harshly or reprovingly to him and that I did not think more of his innocent joys & pleasures whilst he remained with us pure angel that he was - too good for me. But I love my God & Saviour who died for him & by whose death he was received into everlasting bliss when his agony had passed. May the Same Saviour save you & me & may we meet our son & be happy with him in heaven

I wrote the few lines on the first page in haste last evening dearest Cump, and sent them to the Depot to be carried to you by Capt. Coverdale but my messenger could not find the Captain and so brought it back to me. Your first long letter which I thought was dated 29th was 27th this last, from Rome, the 29th. The cold you have taken from sleeping on the ground without sufficient clothing, will not I trust prove very serious altho' I would not be surprised if it did. You are not sufficiently strong and healthy to expose yourself in that way. Flannel next the skin is necessary to you. I am more releived than you can beleive, by the return of Hill for I really think your life in some measure depends on him - and in a great measure too. Do not let him leave you again for any pupose. Ask him why he did not write to me for the deed for the lot, Tell him it is ready for him whenever he is ready for it. I have had one of the best saved for him. The campaign you are starting upon will not I trust keep you too long from communicating with me. I expect to be in South Bend by Lizzie's birthday but I may possibly be a day or two later. Because dear Willy was so much like you Cump and was so devoted to you you must not overlook the love that the others cherish for you above all other feelings of their pure hearts. Minnie & Lizzie - who could love a father more than they do you? & what love is stronger & lasts thro' life & eternity like the love we bear a father? And Tommy's heart responds warmly & tenderly to every evidence of affection you bestow and that he has not the enthusiastic love which Willy has is partly because he could see from the dawn of intellect that Willy was your darling and that you did not love him in the same way and partly to the fact that Willy was more perfect. Indeed I feel now that he was sent to stay with us awhile & by his gentle intelligence and pure devotion to so win our hearts that by going to God he would carry our affections and desires with him to be placed on holier thought and higher aspirations than this world offers. For him, now that time, thank God, has somewhat subdued the harrowing remembrance of his last agony, we cannot feel regret. He has gone home - gone to his eternal Father - who made him for heaven and whose Son died to redeem him - he is in the enjoyment of bliss which our hearts cannot conceive. And what a poor world at best has he been taken from! From his home in the bosom of God he looks upon our sorrow, loves us still and is near us and his prayer is incessantly offered in our behalf but particularly for you (as he loved you best) that that the sorrow may be turned to joy and that by our grief which has embittered or rendered tasteless all earthly joys we may be brought to know & love more & more "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" that through His redemption we may join our lost darling to be seperated nevermore. Through the gate by which Willy entered into everlasting joys may we all enter after earths' cares & duties are passed.

Ever yours

Ellen
[EES]

Lancaster Ohio.,
November 8, 1864
[1864/11/08]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Dear Willy's picture has just been brought and now stands framed in my room. I will have it hung in the parlour opposite Minnie's until I keep house somewhere. All think it excellent. I am sure you will like it but should you suggest any alterations or slight changes they can be made at any time. We need this to keep him fresh in the minds and hearts of all the children for all must love and know and talk of their holy brother until by God's grace we join him in his heavenly home.

The baby has such a severe cold which has taken such firm hold on his lungs that I greatly fear he will never get over it but that it will end in consumption. The Doctor thinks that if hereditary tendency to asthma has anything to do with its persistency that a change of climate will be of service to him. I expect to get off next week or at latest the first of the week following. As soon as I get there I will put Tommy at school and keep him there, He has had a fine time all Summer and Fall, at the farm and now he is eight years old it is time for him to begin to Study in earnest. Lizzie is fat and hearty & happy. I think she will be ready to go to the New York school when Minnie goes. Henceforth I shall devote myself to the education of the children and not allow their studies to be interrupted for any cause but to See you when they can have that happiness. I will not bring them to Lancaster during the vacations as it will be a long journey and the visit would necessarily be very short. My present plan is to Spend the vacations with them and then come down to See Father myself, after their school commences and before the time for him to go to Washington should we all live to that time. I expect to come down in the Spring for five or six weeks when I will perhaps leave Elly & Rachel as temporary boarders at the Academy & bring Emily with the baby. I will then have the monument erected and I will fit up a temporary habitation in the old Sherman house where I may come at any time & feel independent and at home. I will put there such furniture & small traps - household Gods &c (such as Rachel stole from her Father) - and live there in camp style when I come to town. I feel happy at being at last forever freed from the complications here. I am anxious about you dear Cump but I trust in the Mercy of God and the prayers of Willy -

Ever your truly affectionate

Ellen.
[EES]

South Bend Indiana.,
December 29, 1864
[1864/12/29]

Dearest Cump;
[WTS]

Considering your orders to me not to write until I heard from you I think you have been a long time in getting a letter to me. You must have known I was in South Bend yet you sent your letter to Lancaster and today is the first of my receiving anything in your hand writing, A dispatch came to me after all the telegraphic news was old and at long last I have got a letter. I had about made up my mind that I was not to get any more from you. I did not know how to send my letters and I have therefore written only one. That you will probably not receive as I did not know how to address it. Now I have but a short time to write as I am expecting a carriage to go to the Academy to Spend the remainder of the week. I have been out there since the day before Christmas and only came in to spend the day and to get my letters. I have been watching the office most anxiously for your letter & had just given it up and made up my mind to do without any when I got it. Long before this you have seen in the papers the notice of the dear baby's death. His long agony & my woe in witnessing & recalling it I will not dwell upon at present. The loss, aside from the present lonliness it involves I do not deplore on my own account for it is so much better to have him safe with his heavenly Father than to feel that we ever might leave him here without our care. Part we must and it is better to Send them on before to pray for and await our coming. God grant that his prayers and Willy's may ensure my perseverance and obtain for you the gift of faith.

The other children are well & have all enjoyed their Christmas very much. Elly & Rachel are still at the Academy with Emily. Tommy is to commence his school on Monday the 2nd day of Jan, when I intend to keep him closely to it as he is very backward for eight years. I will try and write you a long letter tomorrow and I will also write to Charley. I think you might have sent Charley as bearer of dispatches instead of Gen'l Foster's Aid. Father would have been so much gratified particularly as he is all alone in Washington without any of the family. I receive compliments innumerable on your account and am even stared at myself as a wonder. The children are very anxious to See you and so am I but I dread another journey and hope we may meet short of a southern city. They are projecting a handsome present to you either a farm or a residence in Ohio. Should they really offer it you must not decline as I shall despair of ever having a home if you do. I hope they will make it a house in Cin: & then I could have all the children with me and educate them well too and I would also be near enough to Father to See him at any time. I am suffering today from cold and sore throat - Truly I have great cause to be thankful that you have been preserved through so many dangers. I think you ought to have telegraphed me earlier and more than once, for I have been too long alone here without hearing from you or the means of writing to you. I hope it will be different hereafter. I don't care about hearing from Dayton - after the letter he wrote to Henry Reese which Henry read for me. Dayton is ungateful to me and I will not pretend that I don't know it. I have had a pressing invitation from Col. Taylor to visit them in Chicago. A committee waited upon me with an invitation to visit there and be present at a fair where they made me a present of an Afghan worth $250 - Of course I would not accept -

In haste for the carriage

Ellen E. Sherman -
[EES]

St. Mary's Academy.,
December 30, 1864
[1864/12/30]

[WTS]

After writing you a brief letter yesterday dearest Cump I came back here to the Academy, suffering from severe headache and feel quite indisposed still this morning The children are all well however and are as bright as little kittens. Tommy is enjoying the last few days of liberty he will have for some time. Tommy Ewing is here nearly all the time and the nuts and apples go fast. The money you sent me before I left home is all gone and more than gone - It took a good deal of it to pay up my bills and now I need not only for myself but to pay the second session for Minnie & Lizzie and to pay for Tommy when I enter him. Three hundred a month will not support us all and pay their schooling besides I shall be happy to have a settled home when we can save the half that we spend now in changing & moving about. Sister Angela is exceedingly kind to us all and entertains us in the most hospitel manner. Elly & Rachel are so charmed they do not want to go back to town. It is possible that I shall visit Father in Washington this winter when I shall leave my boarding house entirely and send all the children here to remain during my absence. There are several little girls as young as Elly & Rachel here. I am going tomorrow to spend the morning with Mrs. Williams, Willy's teacher at Notre Dame. That place seemed holy to me before, since 'Willy was there, but now that my darling baby lies there it is indeed sanctified ground and angels seem to dwell with the spirits of our children about the place and to speak of hope & comfort to my heart when I draw near. My greatest hope is that I may ere long be reunited to them never more be seperated - my greatest comfort would be to know that you my dear husband were blessed with the faith which sanctified your children - that you beleived in Jesus Christ through whom they are redeemed. Why can you not make your great works meritorious by offering them to God and doing them in His honor. If you do this you will then perhaps be rewarded with faith & receive for your labors and imperishable crown in the kingdom of God where our dear ones await us. If you die without the faith you leave us miserable the rest of our lives with a weight of sorrow upon the heart - which no wordly influence can dissipate. Why then not ask it of God? It can do you no harm but would afford you even in this world infinite consolation and happiness. And think what happiness it would confer upon those all those who are nearest & dearest to you. The members of the Sherman family would be glad to See you a catholic because they fear to See you die without any faith. How you can live, since Willy died, without the faith I cannot conceive & from my heart I pity you for my own sufferings since his death have been more than I could have borne without its consolations. God sent that affliction as a lesson to us of the vanity of human glory. He took our best & fairest to Himself that our own hearts might follow. The wound was severe and is keenly tender yet God grant it may be healed above - My blessed - my holy little ones pray for us ever until we join you in the bright home above when we shall see the face of God and learn to love Him as He deserves - Our hearts can never rest on earthly joys again after witnessing Willy's agony - and that compared with the darling baby's was almost light.

Ever faithfully yours,

Ellen
[EES]

[1800/00/00]

Dear Sir;
[]

I very recently received a letter from my brother Colonel Ewing in reference to a letter I wrote you some time last winter - I do not now remember exactly when. From your absolute denial of the charges I repeated to you & the sincerity which you evinced in expressing your regret at the occurrance I am forced to beleive that I was deceived in the representations made to me although the information seemed very direct & reliable & I took time & had reason to expect some contradiction (which I did not receive) could the charges then have been proved to be false. Impressed now with the beleif that I have done you an injustice I desire to retract what I then wrote & regret that it has given you pain. With me the unpleasant occurrance shall be forgotten & I hope you will burn my letter and remember it no more. I must add in conclusion that neither of the parties, whom you suspect, gave me the detailed account of your alleged abuse of me. Neither Col. H. nor Captain D. ever heard it that I am aware of.

With restored confidence & good will I remain as heretofore truly

Your friend -

Ellen E. Sherman
[EES]