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Chapter 12 Gentleman Farmer, 1865–1872 After his release from Fort Warren, Dick Ewell and his family returned to Virginia . He had no career, no home. For the first time in his life, he was at loose ends. The Ewells settled temporarily in Warrenton while Campbell Brown searched the countryside for a suitable farm on which the family could settle. Nothing suited, however, and in October 1865 they moved to Tennessee, occupying Lizinka’s thirtyeight -hundred-acre plantation near Spring Hill. Hattie did not accompany them there. In October the twenty-one-year-old woman married Ewell’s aide-de-camp Tom Turner and went to live with him at his farm outside of St. Louis, Missouri. For three years Ewell worked tirelessly to restore Lizinka’s farm. He planted wheat, barley, and potatoes; he bred cattle, sheep, and mules; he harvested grapes and cut timber. He rose before dawn and worked until sunset and in the process made Spring Hill one of the finest stock farms in the state. But Ewell was not satisfied. Spring Hill was Lizinka’s farm; he wanted a place of his own. In Mississippi, fortunes were being made in cotton. Fortunes were also being lost. Flooding, boll weevils, labor shortages—many things could destroy a crop and ruin its owner. But when it came to matters of finance, Ewell was a gambler. He plunged into the high-risk enterprise without hesitation. Using his own money, Ewell leased a 412-acre plantation called “Tarpley,” located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Lizinka and Campbell owned a larger plantation called “Melrose,” a few miles upriver. For the next three years, Ewell shuttled back and forth between Spring Hill and Tarpley in an effort to manage both farms. He was not entirely successful. Although he recorded a profit at Tarpley each of the three years that he rented it, Spring Hill suffered as a result of his prolonged absence. His frequent trips to Mississippi likewise put a strain on his marriage. In December 1871, when his lease on Tarpley ran out, he did not renew it. Ewell’s lease on life ran out a few weeks later. In January 1872 he contracted a virulent contagion and was put to bed at Spring Hill. The disease spread throughout the household, infecting no fewer than eight people. Lizinka contracted the disease Gentleman Farmer, 1865–1872 378 while nursing her husband and died on January 22. Three days later, Ewell, broken in health and in spirit, followed her to the grave. The letters that follow represent but a small fraction of the dozens penned by Ewell during the final years of his life. Many letters from this period were written during his frequent trips to Mississippi; nearly all of them focus on farming and finances. While these topics were important to Ewell, they would be tedious, not to say incomprehensible, to the modern reader. In the interests of space, most of these letters have been left out. Those that remain provide a glimpse of Ewell’s final years of life as a gentleman farmer. 168. To Benjamin Ewell Balt. Sept 19. 65 Pro. B. S. Ewell Dear Ben; L. H1 & myself came here last night, Becca remaining in Warrenton to attend to her estates. We came because of the approaching affair in Octr2 clothes &c. & expect to return in a few days. I received yr. letter just before starting, in which you caution me against going to see Mr Johnson too often. I met when here last a Ten[nesse]an one legged man (before the war as regards the leg) friend of L. in old times, who asked me why I didnt go to see the Prest that he liked to see the Genls &c. & so I asked permission in my next weeks report to visit Md & the D.C. for the purpose of seeing the Prest. &c. & I recd a permit to visit them for 15 days.3 As L. up to a few days since was still kept out of her money in St. Louis it was important that no feeling of animosity should be sowed or rather that impressions should be favorable.4 Sat’y week Campbell wrote word that the Freedmen’s bureau had siezed her property in Ten. except her house kindly occupied by Govr Brownlow & others5 our means being reduced to a few hundred dolls. in gold deposited in bank here & about $1000 of hers & mine together in Mr Reynolds hands of which we invested, in a moment of confidence...

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