35th Missouri (Union) Infantry CIVIL WAR LETTER From Arkansas (Died 6 Mo Later)
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:219308 |
CIVIL WAR LETTER
This Civil War soldier letter was written by Robert Berry French (1825-1864), the son of Littleberry French (1786-1829) and Leodicia Rutherford Spencer (1796-1870) of Russell county, Kentucky. Robert married Eliza Jane Carpenter (1833-1917) in Illinois in 1853 and moved to Iowa where he bought a farm in Decatur county. Robert and Eliza Jane had seven children by the time Robert enlisted as a sergeant in Co. E, 35th Missouri (Union) Infantry. He did not return h...ome to his wife and children. He developed an inflammation of the lungs and died on 4 November 1864 at the General Hospital in Helena, Arkansas (only 6 months after this letter was penned).TRANSCRIPTIONHelena, Arkansas
May 14th 1864Permit me once more to answer your letter of the second. It was received today and I was glad to hear that you were all well. This leaves me in good health with the exception of my side. About ten days ago I was putting in a window when my foot slipped and I fell about 12 feet on a bench and stove on one of my ribs. It is now almost well and I am able to go to work again. I have got through my heavy work for the spring and will not have much to do this summer. I am going to take it easy this summer and see if I can get along about as well as I have here before. You wrote that Akers had sold the wagon and I am well pleased with the sale of it for I don’t know when I can send you anymore money. I lost seventy-five dollars in the burn and I only have forty-five now by me. And the sickly season is here now and if I should be sick, I will want some money myself. The boys in the company is owing me about fifty dollars and they can’t pay me until we are paid off again. If I am paid up to the time that is due me, and I get what the boys is owing me, I will have over a hundred dollars that I could send to you and then have enough to keep for myself. I have seen a great , any men that would make [ ] of all the money they would get at pay day in a few days and then be out for a long time and would suffer for some things that they needed. That ain’t the way I do. I first look to myself, then to my family, and then if I have any to spare, I loan it to the boys.The boys all want me to come back to the company and the captain told me today that if I would come back, he would give me a good position. I told him that I had as good a place as I wanted and I expect to keep it as long as I wanted it. I am in the commissary department and have the best there is going to live on. It is the best place I have been at yet.Now I will tell you I have a garden planted and it is coming on nice. I have corn, peas, little beets, onions, potatoes, and a great many more things. If you were here, I bet you would say it beat your garden. Now you have never wrote whether Huffman is lending our place or not. Write all the particulars that is going on there. You said something about the Odd Fellow’s supper—that it was so nice. I am glad to hear that you were there. I have wrote two or three letters to the lodge but never heard from them so I thought that they didn’t get them or they thought that I was not worthy of [ ] so I stopped and didn’t write no more. I am as firm an Odd Fellow today as I ever was and would be glad to hear how the lodge is prospering but I have no heart to write for it appears that men that is in the army is forgotten by their friends they left at home. I am not alone in this belief for I hear many others making the same complaint and I assure you it is very unpleasant to the minds of the soldiers when they study this thing over for awhile and are in the fields fighting for our country and our friends at home keeps silent and not send us any words of consolation or comfort. It sets [ ] on our minds and by it [we] are robbed of a great deal of pleasure.Write to me as often as you can. It has been a long time between letters this time and I will write once a week anyhow. Now I will close my letter. Give my best respects to all enquiring friends. From Robert FrenchTo Elisa Jane FrenchTERMS$3.00 postage in the United States. We accept Paypal. Postage combined for multiple purchases. Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise will pay a much higher postage rate!For International buyers: We are now using eBay's Global Shipping Program. We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing. So we believe this program will be safer for us - and for you.We're members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions). Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog. We've been selling on eBay since 2001. BID WITH CONFIDENCE.
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This Civil War soldier letter was written by Robert Berry French (1825-1864), the son of Littleberry French (1786-1829) and Leodicia Rutherford Spencer (1796-1870) of Russell county, Kentucky. Robert married Eliza Jane Carpenter (1833-1917) in Illinois in 1853 and moved to Iowa where he bought a farm in Decatur county. Robert and Eliza Jane had seven children by the time Robert enlisted as a sergeant in Co. E, 35th Missouri (Union) Infantry. He did not return h...ome to his wife and children. He developed an inflammation of the lungs and died on 4 November 1864 at the General Hospital in Helena, Arkansas (only 6 months after this letter was penned).TRANSCRIPTIONHelena, Arkansas
May 14th 1864Permit me once more to answer your letter of the second. It was received today and I was glad to hear that you were all well. This leaves me in good health with the exception of my side. About ten days ago I was putting in a window when my foot slipped and I fell about 12 feet on a bench and stove on one of my ribs. It is now almost well and I am able to go to work again. I have got through my heavy work for the spring and will not have much to do this summer. I am going to take it easy this summer and see if I can get along about as well as I have here before. You wrote that Akers had sold the wagon and I am well pleased with the sale of it for I don’t know when I can send you anymore money. I lost seventy-five dollars in the burn and I only have forty-five now by me. And the sickly season is here now and if I should be sick, I will want some money myself. The boys in the company is owing me about fifty dollars and they can’t pay me until we are paid off again. If I am paid up to the time that is due me, and I get what the boys is owing me, I will have over a hundred dollars that I could send to you and then have enough to keep for myself. I have seen a great , any men that would make [ ] of all the money they would get at pay day in a few days and then be out for a long time and would suffer for some things that they needed. That ain’t the way I do. I first look to myself, then to my family, and then if I have any to spare, I loan it to the boys.The boys all want me to come back to the company and the captain told me today that if I would come back, he would give me a good position. I told him that I had as good a place as I wanted and I expect to keep it as long as I wanted it. I am in the commissary department and have the best there is going to live on. It is the best place I have been at yet.Now I will tell you I have a garden planted and it is coming on nice. I have corn, peas, little beets, onions, potatoes, and a great many more things. If you were here, I bet you would say it beat your garden. Now you have never wrote whether Huffman is lending our place or not. Write all the particulars that is going on there. You said something about the Odd Fellow’s supper—that it was so nice. I am glad to hear that you were there. I have wrote two or three letters to the lodge but never heard from them so I thought that they didn’t get them or they thought that I was not worthy of [ ] so I stopped and didn’t write no more. I am as firm an Odd Fellow today as I ever was and would be glad to hear how the lodge is prospering but I have no heart to write for it appears that men that is in the army is forgotten by their friends they left at home. I am not alone in this belief for I hear many others making the same complaint and I assure you it is very unpleasant to the minds of the soldiers when they study this thing over for awhile and are in the fields fighting for our country and our friends at home keeps silent and not send us any words of consolation or comfort. It sets [ ] on our minds and by it [we] are robbed of a great deal of pleasure.Write to me as often as you can. It has been a long time between letters this time and I will write once a week anyhow. Now I will close my letter. Give my best respects to all enquiring friends. From Robert FrenchTo Elisa Jane FrenchTERMS$3.00 postage in the United States. We accept Paypal. Postage combined for multiple purchases. Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise will pay a much higher postage rate!For International buyers: We are now using eBay's Global Shipping Program. We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing. So we believe this program will be safer for us - and for you.We're members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions). Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog. We've been selling on eBay since 2001. BID WITH CONFIDENCE.
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