My Dear Daughter Kathryn,
I trust that the New Year finds you well and in good spirits.
Nothing slows the advances and aggression of an Army as much
as Mother Nature. I write this whilst much of the continent east of the
I have been in correspondence with cousins Fred and Benny.
Fred serves as Captain with the 26th
Cousin Benny, now seventeen, will soon be subject to conscription, and it seems that he is determined, despite his parents objections, to join John Singelton Mosby’s battalion of scouts and guerillas. He wrote in his letter late in December “Where will I be this time next year? If I live I will certainly be in the army, I am resolved to go with Mosby in the summer”. At present he is “training” with the Virginia Home Guard. The Grey Ghost will be getting a good man.
Their father, Doctor Fleet, has noted that the war appears
to be “a punishment for natural, sins”, that the clouds seem more dark,
lowering and portentous than they have ever before appeared, and that the
public tolerance for the hardships of war is wearing thin. However, he retains
the spirit of fighting it out “as long as we can raise 50,000 old men in the
Confederacy”. Angered over the defeat of Bragg’s army in
At their home in Green Mount many cattle have died of disease this winter, ten horses have been taken by marauding Yankees and the gloom of diminished crops and a looming economic crisis have cast a pall over the entire family. A victory in the field will most certainly change attitudes.
For the 44th
It seems ages since I’ve stared down the barrel of my rifle at a Union soldier, and I am sure that all of the 44th are as anxious as I to take our position in support of our Glorious Cause.
May this be the year when our independence shall be wrought out and peace established if it be God’s holy will”.
Stay well and warm,
Your Father,
Corporal James Marshall
44th Georgia VI, Company C.
In Winter Quarters