[Letter to] Miss Deborah Weston
Contributors: Weston, Deborah, b.1814 recipient
Series: Deborah Weston Correspondence (1830-1879)
Published: 1863
Place of publication: Fort Ramsay, Va
Language: eng
Format: [manuscript]
Subjects: Correspondence; United States. President (1861-1865 : Lincoln); United States; Women abolitionists; Antislavery movements; History
Notes: Holograph.

In this letter, Augustus Hesse writes: "Nothing is better for a soldier, as to receive letters from home, ..." At present, they know nothing about victory, "while our time has not come yet for glory hallaluja [sic] as We go Marching on." He meditates on the uncertain knowledge of "the result of this great Revolution" and on the readiness of the soldiers, "the true Servants of our Government" to open the way for liberty. "Slavery is in front of us which We got to fight, and to drive before us, like the dew before the Sun, Liberty is in the rear of us, which will follow us, like the Lam[b] the Mother." The weather in the South is too changeable for carrying on the war in winter; they will have to wait a month before leaving their winter camps. But when the time for action comes, it will be eager and desparate. Hesse says: "We can not play with them [the enemy] any longer, the way we have done---No We got to fight, to show them we are in earnest, and that we are able to master them, ---The soldiers will loose [sic] their courage, a good enemy have now allready [sic], ---especially some Politicals, ---which do not like to hear or see President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation---but it does not make any difference yet." But the majority of soldiers are in favor of emancipation. Hesse asks: "Will our Men re-entlist [sic]? I believe not, but the Governemnt may succeed in getting some by offereing a great Bounty or Land--- ..."