Alexander Garden to Edward William Johnston, May 8, 1826

[Alexander Garden at Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward William Johnston, Esq., at New York City, May 8, 1826. “Recommended to the care of Gouverneur Wilkins Esq. by his friend Alexr Garden.” Folder 43, 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.]

My Dear Sir

Sometime about the beginning of December last I wrote you a long and particular letter, informing you of the heartfelt satisfaction I had experienced during a residence of several weeks under the hospitable roof of your good father, after a separation from him of Forty two years. I am sensible that I could not do justice to the subject, nor express with sufficient force the rapturous enjoyment to both, when we enter’d upon the details of all the trying scenes that we had witness’d, the toils & privations we had experience’d, the dangers we had fac’d together. Our meeting took place at a very critical period, it immediately follow’d the severe bereavement that your father had experienced in his family, by the death of your inestimable Mother, and if I ever felt real pleasure in my life, it was when he assured me that the cheerfulness of my conversation in those moments when his thoughts could be turn’d from grief, and the sympathy of my consolations, when oppress’d by sorrow, had more than it was possible for him to express, mitigated the poignancy of his afflictions, & taught him to turn his thoughts to the blessings that remain’d to him in his children, and to live for them.

We have kept up a regular correspondence ever since, and it is a source of high gratification to me, that his recollections of Carolina being revived, and his attachment to our citizens strengthen’d by a close association for some days with our distinguish’d representation in Congress, when returning from New York. [H]is determination is to pass  a portion of the next winter in Carolina. It was flattering to me in the extreme, when I met on my road homewards a letter from my circle of intimates, saying “tell your friend Judge Johnston to pay us a visit – we are his debtors and wish to [show] our gratitude to him, for his kindness to you.”

I am rejoiced to find by a recent communication with your Uncle Charles that the Judge has undertaken to give shape & polish to a narrative he is about to publish relative to his captivity among the Western Indians. Employment I consider as the best preventative against the encroachments of grief, and I am confident that in the performance of this brotherly duty, he will experience a desirable respite from care and anxiety.

I sent you at the person[?] of writing a copy of An Eulogy delivered by me at the request of of the State Society of the Cincinnati, on the talents & virtues of the late Genl C. C. Pinckney – but as twenty copies of the same sent to A Coleman miscarried I fear that the single one forwarded to you, has met with the same fate. The Packet I have since understood, grounded on Long Island. Coleman received my letter, but the books were lost. I have sent a second supply to the gentleman named, & shall direct him to find you out & deliver one of them to you.

If I can continue to live another year, I hope for the pleasure of a personal interview. [C]ircumstances will for the present summer confine me to Charleston, and in proof of what I have said of the utility of employment, shall steadily engage in preparing additional Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War to those I have already published. I have in store much that relates to your father, and as I can truly say “In his commendation, I am fed, it is a banquet of one.” You may be certain that the pleasure will be infinite to give them publicity.

Present my best respects to your La[dy?] [and] to my young friend Miss Jane. [I]f I would take about 40 years from my age, I do not think that I could meet the expressive glances of your Sister in Law with impunity.

Believe me Dr Sir, Very truly yours

Alexr Garden 

[Alexander Garden (1757-1829)

Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831)

Edward William Johnston (1799-1867)

Governeur Wilkins = Governeur Morris Wilkins (1799-1871), nephew (or grand nephew) of Governeur Morris (1752-1816)
Your inestimable Mother = Mary Valentine Wood (1769-1825)

Your Uncle Charles = Charles Johnston (1769-1833)

C. C. Pinckney = Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825)

A. Coleman = ?

Your Lady = Marie Antoinette Estelle Costar (De Cressac Villagrand) Johnston (circa 1802-1848)

Miss Jane = Jane Mary Wood Johnston (1811-1892)

Your Sister in Law = presumably Mary Louisa Bowen Johnston (1800-1873), since she was a widow at the time]

Alexander Garden, Anecdotes of the American Revolution, Illustrative of the Talents and Virtues of the Heroes and Patriots, who Acted the Most Conspicuous Parts Therein (Second Series), Charleston: A. E. Miller, 1828. Link here.

Peter Johnston, Jr., and Charles Johnston, A Narrative of the Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of Charles Johnston, of Botetourt County Virginia: who was Made Prisoner by the Indians, on the River Ohio, in the Year 1790: Together with an Interesting Account of the Fate of his Companions, Five in Number, One of whom Suffered at the Stake: to which are Added, Sketches of Indian Character and Manners, with Illustrative Anecdotes, New York: J. & J. Harper, 1827. Link here.

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