John Milton Binckley to "My Dearly Beloved Aunt," March 21, 1865

[John Milton Binckley at Washington, D.C., to "My Dearly Beloved Aunt," at [n.p.], March 21, 1865. Paragraph breaks added for easier reading.

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

                                                                Washington DC
                                                                    21 March 1865
My Dearly Beloved Aunt,

How long it has been since I wrote to you I am afraid to recollect. I only know it has been too long, and though I confess that I do not think of you as often as I once did, for time brings such thousands of things & persons to drive older and better memories out of my head, yet when I do think of my dear old Aunty, it is with very warm love and with so much feeling that it always makes me long to go right to you. 

Believe me, I am still as fond of thinking of the days of my youth as if they had but yesterday passed away. Yet how long has been the time that now seems so short, since in 1844 and 1845 I used to be with you. It will, I think, be 21 years next harvest since that summer when I staid so long with you.

Oh what changes have been wrought in that time! The many places I have travelled, the people I have known, have hated, have forgiven, have loved, have forgotten! The many heartaches, the many dreams, the many disappointments, the many temptations -- alas, not always resisted!  

Yet you have changed but little. I know it. I could now go to you a man of thirty-four, with my wife and my two children, and with the sweet memory of the one that God took, and could forget it all and be, as I looked upon you, the same boy of fourteen that I was in the harvest of 1845.

I have seen much of the world, of fine cities, of rich & splendid folks, of bright and beautiful things, but ah! My dear mother's sister, I have seen nothing since my boyhood that I love so much as what I saw then. This world is all false, and the most of its splendor & finery is empty show that dries up the heart and starves the soul.

My family, including Mother, are down on the Eastern shores, where I have rented a plantation. I am here practicing law and have also been one of the Editors of the Daily Chronicle. I sent my family down there partly because my wife's health required her to be in the country & partly because [the cost of] living was so very high in the city and besides, I had a notion to take a trip to the Rocky Mountains, where brother George us -- that is, in the Pike's Peak country, now called Colorado. But I did not go.

In the fall, we will all be back in my own house in the city. I have a large garden with a right nice house in the midst, which, thanks be to God, is my own property. So with a comfortable home over my dear mother's head in her old age, I fear nothing. 

                                        God bless my dear Aunty
                                                          Milton  

[John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).
Aunt = possibly Eva Catharina "Kitty" Stocker Croskey (1784-?).Mary Louisa Michel (1838-1930).  Children up to that time:  Ellen / Nellie / Nella (Fontaine) Binckley (1860-1951), Rosalie Binckley (1862-1864), Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928). 
Mother = Charlotte Stocker Binckley (1788-1877).
George Binckley (1828-1885)]

Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley to John Milton Binckley, March 11, 1865

[Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, March 11, 1865]

The whole community, my dearie, are this morning in a state of agitation. Yesterday the enrollment commenced, and this morning I am going in with my poor darkies who are scared to death, and in spite of all my explanations cannot believe except "that if I don't go with them they will be carried off to the army this day." I am much disturbed about it. 

The weather has been so dreadful that since I last wrote not a stroke of work has been done, and now if these four darkies' minds are all unsettled, it will be next to impossible to get them steady in the traces again. However, I am not discouraged, will fight my fate manfully, and take for my motto "Never give up the ship." 

Father is quite sick this morning. Mother B. pretty well, rest of us well except colds. No news about my business.

In great haste
Mary 

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)
Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866) 
Jane Mary Wood Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892) 
Mother B. = Charlotte Stocker/Charlotta Stoker Binckley (1788-1877)
Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928)
Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.  

Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley to John Milton Binckley, March 3, 1865

[Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, March 3, 1865].

Your sad, sad letter, my dearie, came to me this evening and I cannot -- words cannot tell the depth of pitying tenderness -- the love unutterable with which my heart yearned over my lonely, desolate darling.

Your lot is so much harder than mine! My separation is softened. I have our parents and our children around me, and cheerful healthful work, but you, alone and such wearisome dispiriting labor, and more than all "our sorrow" we cannot bear together.

Oh Milton I echo the wail that came up from the innermost depths of your heart. I am resigned, I bear my grief, but grieve I must. Years can never bring any more comfort than I have now. 

They tell me this child would win me from my longing for the lost one. But "these baby fingers waxen touches" can never "Press his rival down." As long as my heart beats, Her corner in it will break and throb. You remember in Baltimore you said you would see her just as she was. Read & keep the enclosed verses. I picked them out of a torn paper.

Milton, are you quite well? your expression, "My energies flag, and hour after hour goes by without doing anything" disturbed me, If I only had you away from that brain work, late hours, long times of despondency. Indeed you must give it up before the hot weather comes. Your health is more precious than any money you could make. 

If the Good Lord will only prosper me in the work of my hands your debts will be paid, and then you can leave that dreadful city.

You say not a word about coming down soon -- have you no idea of it? You say if I want more money I must let you know before the 8th of March, and I hung thereon a slender hope that you might be coming. 

About money. I wrote you the other day giving a list of expenditures so far. Have yet to buy corn fodder, and cow, and pigs, have almost as many fowls as I want, hope to raise 40 turkeys by next fall.

I have just called Mother in and we have held a council of war and decided we will get along with the money now in hand and consequently not call on you for more. We have enough for what has to be bought here at once. As to guano, that will not be needed until April ans as there is a good deal of stable manure here, and 3 barrels of hen manure which we brought from Markon, I may be able to save some of this guano to begin the cotton.

I hope as gold has fallen the price of guano will also. By-the-way, if cotton continues to fall, do you still wish a large crop put in? In your present position you can form a pretty good guess as to its future price.

The weather is very trying. Such continual rain, but must practice patience, tho' when I think how much depends on the potatoe [sic] crop, I can scarcely have patience.

But, my dearie, your admonition will not be forgotten, in little matters of daily life I must be "Faithful to my Faith."

Good night, my absent one, May the Divine Peace and Comfort be with you. And remember you believe and know that Time is short, and soon we will hold in fond embrace Our Angel.

Your Wife 

[p.s.] Your mother is pretty well again. All send love. Nellie says "give papa my kisses, & tell him I sit in my own little rocking-chair and hold little brother in my arms and rock and sing him to sleep." And she does it really beautifully.

[p.p.s.] I send you a copy of a little paper just started here. Suppose you Exchange with the Editor just for fun it would charm him.  Mother is very thankful for the paper with Uncle Joe's report.

[p.p.p.s.] Did I tell you Dr. Yerby was dead? [I]t is a very sickly winter here. Have you seen Helen lately? Why don't she write?

[Poetry in fourth paragraph: "Locksley Hall" (1835, 1842), Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)
Parents = Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866) and Jane Mary Wood Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892) and Charlotte Stocker/Charlotta Stoker Binckley (1788-1877)
Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928)
Nellie = Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951)
Our Sorrow/Our Angel = Rosalie Binckley (October 1862-June 15, 1864)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.  

Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley to John Milton Binckley, February 1, 1865

[Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, February 1, 1865]

Your note of the 26th, my dearie, came to me last night and I only write now to acknowledge it, and have not time now to write a real letter. I am going right into town to send a note down to Cherrystone to Smith & Dunn, begging them to let me know immediately when the things come, so I can send for them. I have on consideration sent for 45 barrels of seed potatoes, which will plant at least 15 acres, mother and I concluding to put in as many as we have time for. I will need guano in ten days. Now shall I write & order it, and have the money sent from you to Balt. direct? The seed potatoes are to be paid for when the crop is made, but I would be glad to pay for them when they are delivered. I must have ready money to establish a credit.

Your mother says "remind Milton of the "Inquirer" he promised to send me." If more things are needed shortly I will go to Balt. myself. Do not trouble yourself my beloved, I will take all the care and trouble of this. I am capable, I do believe. Anyhow this is an experiment and must be fairly tried.

Your willing help mate Mary

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)
Mother = Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892)
Your mother = Charlotta/Charlotte Stocker/Stoker Binckley (1788-1877)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.  

John Milton Binckley to Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley, January 22, 1865

[John Milton Binckley at Washington City to Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, January 22, 1865]

Washington, DC
Sunday, 22 Jany 65

My poor Mary,

How I pity you, and your mother, & especially your father when I imagine his receipt of Mr. Bowdoin's letter, which I sent yesterday morning. As anything is possible in the mail, I repeat its contents.

The crout was utterly rotten, & the whole lot, including Dr. Smith's, sold for $40!! The freight etc. will have even of that sum, nothing. Mr. Bowdoin evidently did the best he could. Dr. S will blame your father, perhaps very ungenerously. The disappointment you may imagine, as it affects me. Nevertheless, in my personal situation, I may, think I will, be able to get credit on my guano. My money in hand will cover the whole bill, as made out down there, . . . cow, horses & guano. The sent money & what your father can spare, will make up the rest.

We shall get through, my dearie. Be not afraid, now give up the sadness. Be of good cheer. On Wednesday I go to Balto. & will ship the things by the first schooner afterwards.

I have already written you that I had accepted the post of financial Editor of the Chronicle. It is in some sense, the most dignified & respectable, though not, with respect to the conduct of the paper, the most responsible place.

My few articles have already created much talk, and are freely quoted at the grand money grabbing metropolis, New York. I have not much doubt that I shall creditably fill the place, and in the main, have a taste for it. It is a matter of facts figures and severe Logic -- In short, Finance, the most intricate of all practical things.

I have no more to do with politics in the paper than the newsboy who sells it. My department is entirely distinct. My pay is $35 per week, and I get $10 a week more from the Intelligencer, for a duplicate copy of the court report which I also furnish to the Chronicle. But I pay $7 per week to a young lawyer for collecting the data, as my time does not admit of attending the trials, so that my weekly wages are $38.00, 52 weeks a year = $1,976, about $2000 a year. But I shall soon be able to add $15 or 20, per week to that sum, by correspondence, which will be comparatively a small matter of time, as my other duties will always have filled my head so full that it will be a relief to pour it out.

Indeed, if an Extra session is called, which I think is morally certain, I believe I shall coin out of my brains, $3000 per year. But that is not all. I shall be laying up that foundation the want of which has made me all my life an alien among men. 

In the most desperate circumstances, my beloved wife, I have confidently adjured you to bear up. More so, now, that it has come to pass that I am profitably employed, with new hopes, which when I think of you, are prizes. I shall faithfully pursue these, and oh my Mary, let me . . .

[remainder of letter, perhaps nine more lines, redacted -- cut from the page]

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930) 
Your mother and father = Jane Mary Wood Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892) and Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866)
$1 in 1865 = about $14.00 in 2016
The Chronicle (Washington, D.C.)
The Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.  

William Gilmore Simms on Joseph Eggleston Johnston

[“SACK AND DESTRUCTION OF COLUMBIA” originally written in 1865 by Wm. Gilmore Simms, Esq., for the Phoenix, in Julian A. Selby, Memorabilia and Anecdotal Reminiscences of Columbia, S.C., and Incidents Connected Therewith. Columbia, S.C.: The R. L. Bryan Company, 1905], pages 154-156: 

'It has pleased God, in that Providence which is so inscrutable to man, to visit our beautiful city with the most cruel fate which can ever befall States or cities. . .

When, by a crime, no less than blunder, General Johnston was removed from the command of the Confederate armies in Georgia, which he had conducted with such signal ability, there were not a few of our citizens who felt the impending danger, and trembled at the disastrous consequences which they partly foresaw. The removal of a General so fully in the confidence of his troops, who had so long baffled the conquests, if he could not arrest the march, of the opposing army, was of itself a proceeding to startle the thoughtful mind. General Sherman declared his satisfaction at the event, and on repeated occasions since has expressed himself to the same effect. He was emboldened by the change, and almost instantly after, his successes became rapid and of the most decided character.

General Johnston was by nature, no less than training and education, the very best of the Confederate generals to be opposed to General Sherman. To the nervo-sanguine temperament, eager and impetuous, of the latter, he opposed a moral and physical nature — calm, sedate, circumspect; cool, vigilant and wary — always patient and watchful of his moment — never rash or precipitate, but ever firm and decisive — his resources all regulated by a self-possessed will, and a mind in full possession of that military coup d'oeil which, grasping the remotest relations of the field, is, probably, the very first essential to a general having the control of a large and various army.

The error which took Hood into the colder regions of Tennessee, at the beginning of winter, was one which the Yankee general was slow to imitate, especially as, in so moving, Hood necessarily left all the doors wide open which conducted to the seaboard. It required no great effort of genius to prompt the former to take the pathways which were thus laid open to him. Even had he not already conceived the propriety of forcing his way to the Atlantic coast, and to a junction with his shipping, the policy of then doing so would have been forced upon him by the proceeding of his rival, and by the patent fact that there were no impediments to such a progress. We had neither army nor general ready to impede his march. It suggested itself. The facility of such a progress was clear enough, and, with that quickness of decision which distinguishes the temperament of Sherman, he at once rushed into the open pathway. . .

Our people felt all the danger. They felt it required the first abilities, the most strenuous exertions, the most prompt and efficient reinforcements, to prevent the threatening catastrophe. Hardee, though of acknowledged ability, and considered able as the leader of a corps, was not the man to grasp the business of a large army. All eyes looked to General Johnston as the one man, next to Lee, to whom the duty should be confided and the trust. It was confidently hoped and believed that he would be restored to the command, and that adequate reinforcements would be furnished. At all events, no one doubted that, with adequate supplies of men and material, Johnston would most effectually arrest the farther progress of Sherman's army.

Applications of the most urgent entreaty were addressed by our delegates and leading men in the Confederate Congress to President Davis, urging these objects. But he declined to restore the commander whom he had so greatly wronged, and, in respect to reinforcements, these were too tardily furnished, and in too small number, to avail much in offering requisite resistance. The reinforcements did not make their appearance in due season for a concentration of the strength at any one point, and opposition to Sherman, everywhere, consisted of little more than a series of small skirmishes, without result on either side.

No pass was held with any tenacity; no battle fought; Sherman was allowed to travel one hundred and fifty miles of our State, through a region of swamp and thicket, in no portion of which could a field be found adequate to the display of ten thousand men, and where, under good partisan leaders, the Federals might have been cut off in separate bodies, their supplies stopped, their march constantly embarrassed by hard fighting, and where, a bloody toll exacted at every defile, they must have found a Thermopylae at every five miles of their march. The Confederates had no partisan fighting, as in days of old. They had a system, which insisted upon artillery as paramount — insisted upon arbitrary lines for defence, chosen without any regard to the topography of the country. "We will make a stand," said the Confederate chiefs, "at this river crossing or that," then fall back to the next river, and so on to the last. Although in a thousand places of dense swamp, narrow defile, and almost impenetrable thicket, between these rivers, it would have been easy to find spots where three hundred men, under competent commanders, who knew the country, might most effectually have baffled three thousand.'

Letter from Charlotte Elizabeth Mitchell to John Milton Binckley, August 5, 1865

[Charlotte Elizabeth Mitchell near Bedford, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley, August 5, 1865].

Belle Vue, August the 5^th 1865

Dear Brother,

Yours of the 31^st reached me to day. I need not tell you how glad I was to get it. We had almost despaired of ever seeing Willie at home again. [H]e arrived on [T]hursday the 3d of August, having been on the road 10 or twelve days. William [William Lewis Wingfield, 1837-1911, Lt. Col., 28^th Virginia] is very sorry about not having gotten your letter and its contents, after writing to you and not hearing from you, being a stranger, and having no claims on you, except what humanity might prompt you to extend to him, he felt of course that he could not write you again, till he should hear from you. [H]e says about that time they were discharging a good many of their soldiers, and there was a good deal of money stolen from the prisoners, and you having enclosed this money in your letter, there could be no proof left of the fraud if the letter was withheld, it is a pity the world is not more honest, poor Will was a long time without any funds whatever and would have been so grateful could he have gotten what you sent him, will there be any chance to recover it you think?

Will has a dreadful cough, and is not at all well.

I am just from Hennie Campbell’s wedding, she married Mr. Tom Kelsoe, a young widower, with one child, tell Ma I saw uncle Robert and the young people there, they were all well but aunt Lucy, she isn’t in good health.

Am so sorry to hear of the sickness in our family, I hope my Father and aunt Binckley will soon be well. I am almost crazy to see you all, but unless Father can come to Bedford, I see no prospect for my seeing him, no one here has any money, and very slight prospect of ever having any. I hope you will be able in the course of time to come and see us.

Give much love to the family for me, and kiss your babies. Will will send you a few lines in this letter. [Y]ou must have thought him a strange character, not to have acknowledged your letter or the money. I assure you he is greatly troubled about it.

Let me hear from you when convenient. Thank Lou and Ma and Father for writing. I would have answered some of their letters, and also have written to aunt B as Lou desired, but I cannot yet procure any stamps. [W]e have no mails, but the Federals are accommodating enough to send such letters as are delivered them through their mail. I will try and send this in that way, unless I find some one going at once to Richmond.

Love to all and believe me your

Affectionate sister

C.E.M.

“William” = William Lewis Wingfield (1837-1911) Lt. Col., 28^th Virginia, son of Gustavus A. Wingfield and Charlotte Griffin, grandson of Dr. Samuel Griffin, brother of John Richard Wingfield and Samuel Griffin Wingfield, who were also VMI cadets and Civil War veterans.

“Willie” and “Will” = William M. Mitchell/Michel (1839-1908)

Thomas Kelso (1834-1867) married Ann Henry “Hennie” Campbell (b. 1839) in Bedford, Virginia, on August 2, 1865; his first wife, Jane L. Mosely (b. 1838), had died in 1862.

"Uncle Robert" = Robert Crump Mitchell (1807-1872)
"Aunt Lucy" = Ann Lucy Phillips Mitchell (ca. 1809-?)

"Aunt Binckley” = Charlotte Stocker Binckley  (1788-1877)
"Your babies" = Harvey Mitchell Binckley (1864-1928) and Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951).
John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
“Lou” = Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley (1838-1930)
“Father” = Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866)

“Ma” =  Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892)
Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel (1847-1940)

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. Paragraph breaks made for easier reading. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance. 

James E. Stewart to John Milton Binckley, October 26, 1865: Part III

[James Erskine Stewart at Luray, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, October 26, 1865, part 3, finale]:

We people of the South, and especially we people of Virginia, are sadly and sorely oppressed now. The blows of the war fell rapidly and thickly upon us, and we see nothing but oppressive taxation ahead of us. I sometimes think of the West but then I do not like the Yankee nasal twang of that people. ‘Tis true we are all free states now, and tho’ were burdened with a worthless free negro population turned loose upon us, yet that is more tolerable than the free negro . . . of the North, and as negro suffrage . . . and niggerism generally as sense, preached and lectured in your ears, every hour of your life by the Northern people. I do not mean any of this personal to you, as you, are not of their stripe, and original . . .

But the North has effected Cuffy’s freedom of his old master, and consigned her to the slavery of want and degradation. The negro cannot take care of himself and would not if he could. So far as we are concerned, ‘tho we consider that our negroes have been taken away from us against law and against our Constitutional right, yet I am fully satisfied that . . . great question of political economy and state development, and propensity, we of Virginia are happily rid of negro slavery. I believe I have frequently expressed this opinion to you, while I was in Washington. But the Black Republicans have perpetrated a wrong upon poor Cuffy, which will ‘tend sooner of later to his extradition, so far as this country is concerned. The devil has a hot place in reserve for Henry Ward Beecher, will pile coals on their heads throughout . . . and . . . Eternity.

I wish (if you have not already read it) you would get a recent number of the New York News and read the letter of Dr. Dabney the President of Hampden Sydney College in Va., addressed to General Howard of the Freedman’s Bureau. You will be entertained and instructed by its perusal. The sooner the President knows that miserable engine of  . . . and despotism to . . . the better for the people of the country and the reconstruction of the Union.

As to our old chums, Pennybacker & Co., I have not heard much of late. John was in the army, simply because he had to be, was a poor soldier, always sick on leave of absence . . . proof . . . the constant . . . of lazy . . . He would always long . . . about his . . . when I can . . . make a fine lawyer, if he had the industry, but nothing suits him so well as a government clerkship, the last place in . . . war, if he can keep out of it. I saw Striker a few days ago, he told me, he had seen you, and that you had inquired for me. He is a sharp fellow, and has made some 25 to 30,000$ out of the war.

But I must close. Write soon and often. To us, we shall always be glad to hear of you and yours, and your prosperity. We all join in love to you and your wife and your venerable old mother, and send our best regards to her and &c . . .  Mitchell and all the family.

With my best wishes

I am, very sincerely

Jas. E. Stewart

[PS] Don’t read this letter to any Black Republican Shriekers!

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. Stewart wrote a torrent of tightly crowded, almost hieroglyphic words, many of them difficult to decipher. I added paragraph breaks for easier reading.  

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.

James E. Stewart to John Milton Binckley, October 26, 1865: Part II

[James Erskine Stewart at Luray, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, October 26, 1865, part 2]:

Federal power has encroached step by step till States Rights are gasping their last breath in the fatal . . . of consolidation. Johnson an old Democrat is fortuitously at the helm and is doing very well under the circumstances and we are cordially supporting his policy & hoping he may “Tylerize” the Black Republican before he gets through. But the recent elections in the North show considerable vitality yet in the Republicans. But I look for the storm of Revolution again, when it comes it will not come in the shape of secession (that is now resuscitate[?]) but it will come in the shape of Revolution which will sweep with the force of a tropical tornado the whole face of the country. Unless the democracy of thr country will force the . . . as a  . . . whole, as in days of yore, the fig is up.

We shall be quiet, patient, loyal, looking with intense anxiety to see how the Conservatives of the North with Johnson to lead, will fight the redoubtable Sumner and old clubfooted Thad. Stevens &c, but . . . we can do nothing for we are scarcely allowed unlimited suffrage but hope for better days. But we are poor, we have no money and no means at present of bringing it . . . The wolf is at our door in the shape of the tax gatherers had so soon as Congress and the Legislatures meet and adjourn, he will get his teeth and here more . . . than ever: How we are to pay the National & State taxes without a great sacrifice of the little property that is left us in the shape of real estate, Lord only knows.

The Yankee snobs who have . . . their hogsheads of Green Backs out of Government . . . . to buy  . . . soil. But as old Father Ritchie of blessed memory used to say, Nous Arrous [?]. Unless history is a great liar, the first revolution oe civil war in a Republic was never the last. Now Milton . . . there and ask old Mother what she thinks of it & to put it in her . . .

Well you have heard of us and us pleased that what you did hear of us . . . We have struggled along, and were quite prosperous in many respects and in others not so. We have lived and . . . things in the Confederacy dealt us a heavy blow. We lost a great deal. We had invested in Confederate Securities all of our negroes (12 valuable servants) but we have a  . . . which we purchased in 1862, for which we paid $6,000 in Confederate money (it was then yet pretty good) and it ought . . . if there was any money in the country, to sell for $5,000 in Green Backs and then we have land in Jefferson probably worth $5,000 more, and that is our own stock . . .

Had the war terminated favorably for us we would have been worth in our old age between 20 & 25,000$, but we did not grieve at our fate, we bear it as southern patriots generally do, with submission to the fate of war. My health is perfectly restored and saved, indeed robust. It began to improve the last year I was in Washington but as soon as I got back here and began to knock about in active life and the open air it improved rapidly. Now I can speak in court ot in the open air upon the hustings for 2 hours at a stretch without feeling any particular inconvenience from it. I tried it fully during the late canvas sometimes two or three times in a week and my speeches were highly complimented by both friends and foes. Indeed never at any time in my life did I speak with the vigor that I now do. We elected A.H.H. Stewart [Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart (1807-1891)] from our District by a large majority over one of the most notorious Tories in it.

My head however is very white and my dear wife is beginning to turn also, tho’ she enjoys good health, and if anything is more energetic and managing than when you knew her, which is saying . . . The children are as well. Alice is married to a clever, well educated young man and hope . . . had done well. Nettie is a very fine child, very smart and active and as for Fannie, she is even more lovely than when you knew her, a great comfort to us, has been wonderfully caressed & dressed by several and yet has not spoiled her in the least. She has rejected offers that many girls would have considered very advantageous but she is not troubled or in a hurry – the man that gets her will have to be of the right stripe. You would be astonished to see how energetic she is in every respect. But you know she she has excellent sense, is religiously inclined, and in fact, though she is my child, I must say, take her al in all – I know of no one who is so lovely a character. She still wears her long-flowing auburn-curls.

We are thinking seriously of selling out, and leaving here, as the country is so desolated and bare of money and poor prospects for practice. I want to settle in a larger and more flourishing place. Where there are more people, more business and more money, and where we may invest the residue of our means in more productive prosperity. I am trying to bring my plans to work . . . but do not know how soon I can effect my purpose. I hope however to do so before the Fall closes. Where I shall move to I know not, but wherever I go, you shall know it.

[Alice E. Stewart (1847-?), married Robert B. Jennings (1839-?) on September 12, 1865, in Page County, Virginia. 

Nettie Floyd Stewart (1861-1883); later married John William Borst (1858-1923).

Frances Fannie Elizabeth Glenn Stewart (1825-1913) – wife of Judge James Erskine Stewart (1814-1890), who served as law clerk with the US Department of the Interior, 1852-1861.

Frances “Fannie” Stewart (ca. 1845-?)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. Stewart wrote a torrent of tightly crowded, almost hieroglyphic words, many of them difficult to decipher. I added paragraph breaks for easier reading.  

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.

James E. Stewart to John Milton Binckley, October 26, 1865: Part I

[James Erskine Stewart at Luray, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, October 26, 1865, part 1]:

Luray Page Co. Va.

October 28, 1865

Dear Binckley

Your letter of May 25 last did not reach me till the latter part of the summer but was none the less acceptable for that as there is no one upon “God’s green earth” from whom I and my family would have been more delighted to hear. We had many and many times talked of you and yours and wondered into what port the storms and times of pests of war had driven you. Of your venerable old mother we had long since considered that she “had gone to that bosom from whence no traveller returns” and were therefore the more delighted in receiving your letter to find that she was still living.

The objection to your letter is that it tells us so little of yourself and yours. We should have been pleased to have heard something of your wife and children and how you were getting along. What are you doing? Are you still driving away in the same city or are you grinding up pills? Or have you a notion for the Law again, as I have not been told just dreamed you had! Let us know? The first pays regret instantly of “Green Backs” (alas! The Golden Calf with [?] away) the second savors too much the whole do. [ditto?] . . . for a genius of your taste . . . of suits your love of disputation -- as a  . . . at least it does us who are in . . . up.

We shall strike South when there keeping with us money-stay laws and caused no conservatives practice. But still we are as . . . will our calamities as possible over. Old club days. We made a noble struggle . . . we can years for our right, and in all could . . .  

South has last better days. But lack of numbers and resources . . . and no . . .  her teeming millions aided assisted as she was all the time “by all the world and the rest of mankind.” Could we have held out another four or so months, we would have whipped the North. I know you will launch at that and say ah! “Captain” – how mistaken you are. Had not “Stonewall” Jackson . . . the night of the great Chancellorsville, victory he would have bagged Hooker to a deadlier . . . but if he had missed him that night and gone with Lee to Gettysburg we should have won that fight and indeed the war. But with the death of Jackson “our glory” seems to have followed upon our heels, blunder after blunder seemed to tend upon our military efforts ‘till it culminated in the fatal and disastrous removal of Gen’l Joe Johns[t]on from Atlanta. Had that not taken place Sherman would never have made his triumphal march to the coast. But our villainous currency had  . . . to do with our failure to attain ends. It had been a  . . . and on . . . so low that our men deserted by thousands before the spring campaign opened. Lee fought Grant at Petersburg . . . last grapples with . . . skirmish line.

Virginians have been accused in “old times” of vanity (and it occurs to me you used to fling it at me sometimes) in thinking they were the greatest people on earth, but did not this war prove it?  We furnished more and better troops than any two States in the Confederacy. We fought till the last trumpet sounded. Our State bared her bosom to the storm and received its heaviest blows, scarred all over from North to South from East to West. Robbed by the hand of despotic power of our territory, our negroes all gone, our fertile fields desolated and destroyed, our barns and mills burnt &c &c and yet our people stand amidst the ruins comparatively erect submitting gallantly and cheerfully to the fate of war, yet strong and firm in the belief of the righteousness of the cause for which they fought and in the belief of the great principles of Constitutional right and Constitutional liberty, as they are taught in the great “Magna Chart[a]: of the Va. & Ky. resolutions of 1798 & 99, as they did on the day when Beauregard first struck the spark front the flint of the Revolution, when he opened upon Sumter. The great pillars of States Rights and state sovereignty upon which the edifice of our Government stood, and which kept the Government together for nearly a century of time, have however bene terribly assaulted and damaged by this war, and though the country is . . . with all its hosannahs over the Union yet that Union is …………………  years more, it will be high and dry upon that fatal shore, where so many of its “illustrious predecessors” have been wrecked. . .

[Charlotte (aka Charlotta) Stocker Binckley ~ "your venerable old mother" (1788-1877)
John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley ~ "your wife" (1838-1930)
Judge James Erskine Stewart (1815-1890)
Fannie E. Stewart (1825-1913)
n.b. The Stewarts and Binckleys lived in Georgetown in 1860. Stewart is listed as a clerk in the 1860 census].

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. Stewart wrote a torrent of tightly crowded, almost hieroglyphic words, many of them difficult to decipher. I added paragraph breaks for easier reading.  

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.

Jane Johnston Mitchell/Michel to John Milton Binckley, circa 1865

[Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel to John Milton Binckley, circa 1865]:

My dear son Milton, son in love, as well as son in law, I have, as usual, but a few lines to write, as I see with great difficulty -- but they must be written, well marked and faithfully obeyed. Harvey [Harvey Mitchell/Michel, 1799-1866] will tell you that I want the money from Pembroke -- let him believe so if you see fit. I want it for your use, hoping that it may help, at least in some measure, to remove your present perplexities. I would give you the last hair on my head if it would do you any good. The cottage must be saved whatever present privation be incurred by sacrificing all other property of avail. 

Remember, we all love that sweet spot, and our hearts would ache to see it sold. Besides, it wd. [would] be sold at immense loss. Now, if you can get hold of the five hundred due, ere long, on Pembroke, it will make a large part of your mortgage. I command you, as my son, to get & use it in this way.

I had a letter from sister Lydia in which she says she trusts that Joseph will give Willie a place as soon as he can. She has not seen him since his appointment, & he is overrun with business -- but she seems sure. [Lydia = Lydia Mulligan Sims McLane Johnston, 1822-1887; Joseph = Joseph Eggleston Johnston, 1807-1891; Willie = William M. Mitchell/Michel, 1840-1908].

Yours in love.
J.W.M. 

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.

Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley to John Milton Binckley, February 27th, 1865

[Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, February 27th, 1865]:

I do want to write you a long letter to-night, my dearie, but am afraid that I can't keep my eyes open by this scamp of a boy [Harvey Mitchell Binckley, 1864-1928] for several consecutive nights, and I feel used up completely. I intended to take a nap in the middle of the day, but took father [Harvey Mitchell/Michel, 1799-1866] in to town & then travelled in various directions some 8 or ten miles in search of corn and fodder, and didn't get home until a late dinner -- after that found the stalls were in want of kine-shatters [kine = cows] to bed the horses (you can't get straw here) and as I could'nt [couldn't] spare the men from their work, I just took the cart and Sue [Sue Henry,1847-1940] & Nell [Nella Fontaine Binckley,1860-1951] and I went into the woods, raked up and filled the cart two loads, and drove home at sunset. So here I am, wanting for supper, hungry as a wolf, and so tired! but I have'nt [haven't] had a severe attack of neuralgia this winter, and if I could rest at night, would be almost well of my nervousness.

I had a short letter from you by last mail complaining terribly that you had only one letter since you saw me in Baltimore. So it seems that the long epistle I wrote just after I got home, has never reached you. The one you got was my second, this is the fifth.

But now I must try and give you some idea of the state of my affairs on "my farm." I have about 100 acres enclosed in petty fair fence: that, if nothing happens, I shall cultivate myself, little over 100 only enclosed on the upper end, which upper end (of some 25 acres) Mr. Westcoat will, I am pretty sure, rent. The other 70 or 75 entirely unenclosed, I will still try to rent out. Of my own part I draw a sort of rough diagram to give you some idea of how we think to divide it. But first I will speak of the chief of my difficulties just now.

First, hands. I have determined to keep Rose in the house as house-maid and nurse, and to do odd jobs, and lend a hand generally. Leah in the kitchen. For out hands as yet only two Curtis and George, who is a stout young man and a good hand. By dint of great exertions have got the promise of another man, a boy and a woman on Wednesday (1st of March) from Town-fields. So have to wait (im)patiently. 

Have hired from Gov. [U.S. Government] 4 stout work horses, one of them a gentle old sheep that I drive myself. Doctor is too frisky for me either to ride or drive alone, so I put him in the plow. I have had the greatest difficulty in finding corn and fodder. I think I have now engaged corn sufficient (and it is terribly high,) but fodder is so scarce, being constantly bought up by the Quartermaster, that I may have to send to Balt. for hay.

The weather has been very unfavorable indeed for ploughing, hard freezes until last week, and since then constant rains. I have managed to get about two days ploughing done, and my only consolation is that I am not behind my neighbors.

Tuesday morning [February 28, 1865]. Had to give up and go to bed. Mother [Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel, 1811-1892] wrote, but what I do not know, as she is not yet up. I am a very early riser these days. She said she wold give you an idea of the plan of the season and so I presume it is useless for me to say any thing on that subject.

Altogether, tho' expenses are heavy, and difficulties great, I do not on the subject of the far, feel at all discouraged. Such things I can easily endure, but lately I have had a cause for anxiety that weighs on me more than every thing else together. The cold I told you mother Binckley [[Charlotte Stocker Binckley (1788-1877)] had has taken the Ague and fever form, and though she is better, and getting well, she seems very much discouraged. Since her spell last September, she has been so well,ad so essentially free from neuralgia, having had only one . . .

[the fragment earlier put with an August 23, 1865 letter fits here better]:

. . . severe attack (and that did not last 24 hours) that I was in hopes that she would enjoy her life here. I do hope this will be the last attack she will have of this detestable disease. She will write to you in a few days.

As usual, I have been interrupted again, and now have only time to say goodbye and close this hurried scrawl. I have'nt [haven't] the remotest idea now what I have written. Mother B. is still asleep, or I would have some special message for you. Fortunately Father had just a present of some delightful wine, and some birds, both of which she seemed to enjoy very much. And she is now taking Plantation Bitters. She positively refuses to see a doctor again.

I must stop -- Father is starting. Oh if I could only see you for one minute! [A]nd yet that would only be an aggravation. -- Mary

[P.S.] By next mail I shall give you an account of "Money I have spent." The goods are all received, and I got them hauled for nothing. 

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.