Enclosed please find an old letter from my great-grandfather
written to my great-grandmother. He was a well-spoken Yankee soldier in the
Civil War from 1862 to 1865.
Pulaski, Tenn.
December 17, 1863
Sarah E. Brewer
Dear Companion,
Again
I am proud of the privilege to write to a bosom friend. This morning is a cold
one: the ground is froze very hard, but the master planet (the Sun) is rising
as usual in the Eastern horizon, so perhaps by noon the present cold will be
more submissive. Yesterday was a very raw day.
Well,
Sarah, I sent $45 to be Expressed to you by our Q.M. (Hay). He left here with
the money yesterday morning, for Nashville,
that being the nearest express office. You will find the money at C. Brown’s.
There will be some expressage to pay, I don’t know how much. If you send any
person except your Pa after it, you had better send a written order, lest they
would be bothered in getting it.
A
couple of days ago when I was on picket, George Strattan, myself, and a couple
of men of the 7th Iowa
were upon one post. Along about twelve o’clock, the sun shining very warm,
George and I concluded to take our guns and walk down to the creek, which was
close by. Accordingly we started, upon drawing nigh to the creek, what should
we see, but two men sitting on the bank sunning themselves. We quickly halted,
gazed at them and saw they were young, genteel-looking fellows. We pronounced
them Rebels and immediately concluded to capture them. So George passed slyly
to the right and I to the left, and at the same time closing in on them.
We
were successful in our undertaking and captured them and took them up to our
post and kept them under guard until the next morning. At about relief time,
when we took them out of the little obscure place where we put them, we cut
their heads off and wrapped them up nicely in our blankets.
What?
Did I say men? A mistake, they were ganders, and made a fine roast, too, for
our dinners.
Christmas
is drawing nigh. I feel quite different now to what I did last December.
Perhaps enough, write soon.
Yours, as ever,
E.H. Brewer
Serena Cundall
Glendo, Wyoming
went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of
letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in
their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell.
So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and
in 1956, the first My Folks title – My
Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the
shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true
tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available
to our growing online community.
