Saturday, December 3, 2016

Benjamin Stoddert Ewell to Joseph E. Johnston, April 13, 1871

[Benjamin Stoddert Ewell at Williamsburg, Virginia, to Joseph E. Johnston, April 13, 1877, folder 384, Trigg-Floyd Collection, Special Collections, John Cook Wyllie Library, The University of Virginia's College at Wise (formerly Clinch Valley College), Wise, Virginia. This is my rough transcription.]

College of William and Mary [letterhead]

Session begins 2nd Wednesday of October.
Closes 4th of July.

Williamsburg, Va.
April 13th 1871

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston,

My Dear General

Not feeling satisfied without an immediate acknowledgement of your letter of the 11th Inst. I write to say I have received it, and if ever you become a candidate for a premium to be awarded to the writer, or speaker, saying the handsomest thing in the handsomest manner, make me a judge, & I'll see that you get it. Not by partiality, but by right.

Some of your letters make a great baby of me, & this one is a case in point. I do not feel as if I deserved such kindness. I used to tell Mrs. Johnston, during the war, that Napoleon, never wrote in the style, or with the sentiment, that you did. I listened to the thanks you gave to the party serenading you July 19th-20th 1864, & have rarely, if ever, listened to any thing more eloquent, short & unassuming as they were. Harvie was so irrepressible he could not conceal his emotions. I did, but I hid it. By showing some of your letters I have made some prominent men, since the war, who did not know, or understand, you, he were earnest friends.

Lizzy sends here kindest love to you, & Mrs. Johnston, in which I join & trusting to see you this summer, I remain
Your most sincere
Bj. S. Ewell

[Note on verso: "written by one of my staff officers and best friends."]

[Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)
Benjamin Stoddert Ewell (1810-1894), United States Military Academy Class of 1832, President of the College of William and Mary, 1854-1861 and 1869-1888, where his main corpus of papers are archived and well worth consulting
Napoleon (1769-1821)
Mrs. Johnston = Lydia Milligan Sims McLane Johnston (1822-1887)
Harvie = Colonel E. J. (Edwin James) Harvie (1835-1911), on Johnston's staff. VMI Class of 1855
Lizzie = Elizabeth Stoddert Ewell (1841-1911), daughter of B. S. Ewell and Julia R. Mcilvain]

[Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration.]

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