From: Edward.Dunagin@f540.n226.z1.fidonet.org (Edward Dunagin)
Newsgroups: k12.ed.soc-studies
Subject: CIVIL WAR
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 07:54:00 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:226/540 - The Tele-Forum Netw, Columbus OH

Hello John, you said in part.............

JBW>  I am looking for a Civil War buff to write to.  I am a real big civil war
JBW>  buff.  Please write me if you are a CIVIL WAR BUFF!!!

      I'm not a "buff"<g>, But thought you might enjoy this letter that
      was in the PBS Miniseries..Civil War...Burns....



     MANASSAS, Virginia
     1 WEEK BEFORE 1ST BATTLE BULL RUN
     SULLIVAN BALLOU, MAJOR
     2ND - ROAD ISLAND VOLUNTEERS

     Letter to wife Sarah Ballou in Smithfield, RI from Washington DC.

     JULY 14, 1861



     Dear Sarah,

          The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few
     days, perhaps tomorrow.  Unlest I shouldn't be able to write you
     again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under
     your eye when I am no more.  I have no misgivings about or lack
     of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage
     does not falter.  I know how American civilization now leans upon
     the triumph of the governed and how great a debt we owe to those
     who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolu-
     tion. And, I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys
     in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.

          Sarah, my love for you is deathless.  It seems to bind me with
     mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break.  And yet my
     love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me
     irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield.  The memory
     of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding
     over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you that I have
     enjoyed them for so long.  And how hard it is for me to give them
     up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years when, God willing,
     we might still have lived and loved together and see our boy grow
     up to honorable manhood around us.

          If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I
     loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield,
     it will whisper your name.  Forgive my many faults and the many pains
     I have caused you.  How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes
     been!.  But, oh, Sarah! if the dead can come back to this earth and
     flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in
     the brightest day and the darkest night.  Always, always!  And when
     the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool
     air on your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

         Sarah, do not mourn me dead - think I am gone and wait for me -
     for we shall meet again.

******Two weeks after this letter, Major Ballou was killed in the first***
******battle of Bull Run**************************************************


 Peace..................................Ed


 * SLMR 2.1a #1852 * A wise man asks questions without hesitation.



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