Letter from Ellison Capers to his wife Lottie, March 7 and 8, 1863

Letter from Ellison Capers to his wife Lottie, March 7 and 8, 1863

Capers begins his letter by copying a note from Cousin White who was supposed to deliver the mail but there was a confusion. In his letter on the 7th, he describes his location to Lottie and his work on Combahee Ferry as well as complaining about some of the rich men in the area who will not allow the army to use their slaves. In his letter on the 8th, Capers describes a very vivid dream in which he believes Lottie to be in love with another man and the jealousy he felt. He also talks about his daily life including his lack of a servant and his fondness for sassafras tea.

A1961.1, Box 3, Folder 6

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Ellison Capers Collection

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https://citadeldigitalarchives.omeka.net/items/show/487

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Citadel Mch 2nd 1863

Dear Elison

Enclosed I send Cousin Lotties letter as you requested. Stevens did not call for the money; what shall I do with it?

In haste as ever yours
Afft. Cousin
I. B. White

[Illegible] is in Columbia

Camp at Ballouville-Saturday night
7th March

My dear Lottie- How true it is that we ought never to judge hastily! I thought White ought to have taken the “long letter” out of the office, & felt that he ought to have written to me in answer to my dispatch. Today’s mail from Charleston brings me this note (above) with your letter, which you ought to have got by last Saturday’s mail! So White took out the wrong letter! Maybe it is all for the best. I am sorry, very sorry, my dear angel, that this this accident happened, for I might have saved my idol wife

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some pain of heart if I had succeeded in stopping that sentence. But it has taught me a lesson. I am encamped about 2 ½ miles from Combahee Ferry, & 4 ½ miles from our Post Office, Green Pond. It is eighteen miles nearer Charleston than the Pocotaligo office. I get the Charleston papers, daily, and when you direct to Green Pond will get your letters at 3 P.M. on the same days. Look at mama’s map of So. Ca. & you will see the Ashepoo & Combahee Rivers, both emptying into St. Helena Sound. Now look for the Ferry on the Combahee, just at Heywood’s, & you will see the road running from this Ferry across to Ashepoo Ferry. On this road, 2 ½ miles from Combahee Ferry, your Ellie is camped, in among the pines. Mr Chas. Lowndes & W. C. Heyward & an overseer, have fine-land houses here, & as the overseer’s house was built by a man named Ballou (who selected this ridge as a healthy one) this is Ballouville. We had a delightful day for our march yesterday, & got here at 3 ½, leaving our former camp at 9. The road was a good one, & passed down the Combahee for most of the way, through Hanckel’s Middleton’s & Blake’s splendid rice plantations. I have ridden between 40 & 50 miles today with Col. Jeffers & Capt. David (Jim) leaving

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the country between the two rivers. I am sorry to say, that I will be obliged to go to work tomorrow on the Battery at the Combahee Ferry. The most of these wealthy planters are very selfish, & the only way to get their negro labor, is to take it by force. I have to march my men two miles & a half tomorrow to build the work on the Combahee, when right there, W.C. Hayward, a very rich man, has over two hundred negroes in his field at work! One of the Batteries on the Ashepoo, which I visited today, as its “field office” obstructed by a little point of land, thickly wooded, which runs out to the river, just at a bend below the Battery. This wood belongs to Rhett, old Barnwell, and when Col. Jeffords began to cut it down, he went to Charleston, & Beauregard granted his petition that the work should be stopped. And this is the high Priest of “Independence of the North.” Ah! darling, the more I see of “the world,” of “wealth,” the more do I appreciate Pa’s advice & warning: “Beware of the world. It is all a cheat & a lie.” They sent us our mail from Pocataligo this evening, and I got your dear letter of Wednesday, the 4th, enclosing Margarie’s. I hope by this time that Mama has

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received her money. You will see by White’s note that he has it all safe. Tell Mama I think she had better wait till Stevens goes down & he will bring it up, or I can tell White to send it by mail; just as she says. I am very tired, my angel, & must put off this letter until tomorrow (D.V.) My heart, Lottie, never grows weary. I hope got my Friday’s letter tonight. Good night, may God bless you. Ellison

P.S. You will find Pilgen’s bill and the cost of our Nassau articles in the other letter. I sent Mr Stevens $15 dues to “Association of Graduates,” & told him to send you receipt. God willing, I will answer your question about the extract from Dr Cumming tomorrow night. Ellie

Sunday night – 8th inst.

My own, precious wife Our little camp is quiet, & the stars are shining brightly, on this lovely Sabbath evening. I went to the Ferry this morning with 60 of my men & spent the greater part of the day there. I felt so tired when I came back this evening, that I took a little nap. I told you last night that I would tell you tonight how I liked the extract you copied for me last Sunday. I think it is very pretty indeed, my angel, but I

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don’t think that any of us know the nature of the happiness which God has in store for us in Heaven. I am not unwilling to believe in the heavenly recognition, but I am not satisfied, that God will so provide for us in His Kingdom. We will be happy there, & I am satisfied to believe that, & to spend any time in humbly [illegible] to prepare against that day. You may confidently rely upon my poor prayers, Lottie, at all times, & I will especially ask God’s blessing on your efforts in behalf of the negroes. You ask me about selling Bowie my Bond on Mr Stevens. I have not spoken to Stevens on the subject, but you know I have not yet got the Bond from [illegible]. I hope to do so, in time to get the 8 percent treasury notes. Darling, I had the most singular dream about you last night I have ever had. We were to gather at cherry grove, or some country place, and I found a letter, in your hand writing, addressed to “Walter Blake”, whom I thought to be the same as Capt. Bryan’s friend. You began the letter “Dear Walter,” & it was 12 or 15 pages long! I do not now remember if I read it further there to find that

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it was a love letter in which you declaimed your love for him, & yet admitted your obligation to me. It was written in a different style from any that you had ever written me. It was racy, glowing with love, & full of sympathy & regret. The thing that pained me most was that you should have written so long a letter to “Walter”, when you had never written me near so long a one. Oh! I experienced the most exquisite neural torture. Jealousy seemed to have possessed my heart, & I felt that it was breaking, & yet I seemed to love you all the more tenderly & devotedly. The dream was so real & so vivid, that I have experienced the genuine torture of a lover’s jealousy. I really know what it is from the experience of that dream. I don’t think I slept two hours after waking up in the middle of the night. Was it not singular? I felt this dream the more, because being of a jealous nature, in love, it [illegible] only the stranger. When I awoke you may imagine, my angel, my delight that it was “all a dream”, though I was made so nervous by it, that I could not get to sleep after it, scarcely. I am very much relieved, Lottie, my angel, to know that your

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[illegible] is better. Take good care of it, darling, & apply the vinegar on the very first symptoms of [illegible]. I am without a servant, darling. What shall I do? Take Peter? Or make out, by getting one of the teamsters to attend to my horse, & waiting on myself. I am messing with Capt. Hill, my Anderson Captain. He & his whole company are my friends, & by messing with him, I am saved all the annoyance of “house wifery”. I drink sassafras tea, & have become very fond of it. It is a great deal better than any of the substitutes for coffee, & much healthier. Did you ever drink it? I can get on very well without a servant, if you think it would be unsafe to risk Peter in camp. I send you a diagram by which you may see my position in the map. Kiss my precious boy & dear little Sue for me. How time flies! It does not seem long since you & I were at the Hotel, waiting for Sue, does it? And yet it is five months, nearly. Good night, my darling. I hope to have sweeter dreams of you tonight. Ellie.

P.S. I have written to cousin Sam to know how much money [illegible] deposited for you. I can [illegible], Lottie, to get out of the woods without using that. I want you to use that with what you now have, so that I can use my salary to pay my debts. Good bye, my precious wife, & may you find the patriots reward in a justifying & approving heart, for the sacrifice you are making. Love to mama. Ellison.