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Correspondence, 1865 Chellow April 18th, 1865 My Dear Sister [Isaetta], Your brother Lewis arrived this evening. Father being quite unwell and having written a good deal today, I have insisted on writing this letter for him. So you must not feel slighted at his not writing. I will do my best to represent him. I have feared that you might feel strongly of our not writing to you and attribute it to a want of regard for you— though I felt satis¤ed that if you would re®ect a moment about the matter, you would make proper allowances. We would have sent days ago but we could gather nothing and to start a negro off to Albemarle would have been useless up to within 48 hours as parties of Yankees and stragglers from our army were running all over the county north of us and would have been certain to take any horse they met. Last night and today we have heard this much only—Ursula’s son Tom says a Yankee of¤cer by the name of Howard was passing by “Whispering” and asked whose land it was. When told, he said, “that very man was captured between Petersburg and Farmville with some others who were cut off by being unable to cross a creek and sent to Richmond.” Hudson (“Rosny” negro) says he saw three or four men, two of whom were members of the 44th Regiment and they told him brother James was taken prisoner and not hurt as some of them saw him after he was captured and that he was sent to Richmond. Mr. Wilson Call told Edmund he saw two soldiers who said they knew the fact that brother James was captured and not hurt. But he didn’t remember whether they said they saw him after he was taken or not. Now, whether to put any reliance in these statements or not, I can’t say. But I am inclined to think there must be some truth in them for though coming from different sources, they are all con¤rmatory of each other and agree throughout. I understand that the prisoners captured near Richmond and Petersburg were sent to Fortress Monroe or north and this is reasonable for the Yankees did not then know that they would capture Lee’s army. We have felt so certain that brother James was unhurt that we con¤dently expected he was in Albemarle by this time. And, indeed, I would not be surprised if he gets there before this letter now. Everything has been so unsettled that it was impracticable to send one of the little boys or negroes to Amelia to make inquiries and Edmund and I only surrendered and got our paroles yesterday [April 17]. He was talking today about going down to see if he could learn anything. Now the prisoners sent north will certainly be paroled, I think. But as the parole of the Army of Northern Virginia was in pursuance of terms obtained by General Lee, it does not necessarily follow that prisoners previously captured will be immediately paroled. I think they will be but they may not for some weeks or months. So you must not be alarmed if you fail to hear from your husband immediately. He told Edmund he had no idea of trying to cross the creek with his weak horse, and if he met with the Yankees, they certainly wouldn’t have shot him by himself. Whilst it is painful for you and all of us to be kept in suspense about him, and whilst it is true that anxiety is almost sure to produce apprehension, I cannot but think that there is scarcely a single valid reason for any other belief than that brother was not hurt but simply captured. You may be assured that the moment any reliable intelligence of him is received here it will be sent to you. And you must always feel assured that we all feel as much love for you and interest in all that concerns you as if you were one of us by birth instead of marriage. We received letters from William and his wife today. They were well and at Watt’s house. Correspondence, 1865 / 223 The Yankees came here, drew a sword over Pa to make him tell where the horses were, which he didn’t do. Took all his liquor, Philip’s shoes, some meat and left. They found the horses and took...

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