Letter from Orlando L. French to Lydia French

ReadAboutContentsHelp

Letter written by Orlando L. French to his wife, Lydia French, during his service in the Civil War.

This is a scanned version of the original image in Special Collections and Archives at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.



Pages

p.
Complete

p.

[inverted writing at the top]

dont do as Mrs Parker does, and tell every one that I am going to be promoted until you are sure - Parker is not capt yet and farther than that I dont believe he ever will be - he does not make the offices that I thought he would

[beginning of letter]

Camp in the field two miles South of Murfreesboro Tennessee Jan 13th 1863

Well, my little girl, how does the world use you, and how do you enjoy yourself. I hope well for I feel more contented when you write as though you were not in a fit of the blues, I know to one of your disposition, it is a very severe task to be in the least dependant upon others, but you must bear in mind the necessities of the case, and charge it all to the union, or rather to an excess of patriotism in your devoted husband, although I think the stock of his patriotism, at the present writing is whittled down to a pretty fine thing and leaving me to judge of the rest, I should say that theirs was whittled down too, but here let me say it is not because our love of country has grown cold, or that our institutions and forms of Government are less sacred to us, neither have we lost our reverance and love, for that emblem of our freedom, and our honours the stars & stripes No, no never be it said of us, - we are willing to fight, & to die if we must, for the maintanance of our cherished institutions and the principle of self Government, - but it does seem to us, short sighted mortals, that after a protracted war of two years, that we are no nearer the end, than when we began - that with all the

Last edit about 2 years ago by SusanE
p.
Complete

p.

elements of success at our command, - arms, money and a just cause, we ought to be making some permanent progress, - to be sure we have driven the enemy from Louisville to this place and we may drive them into Alabama, - we have done it once before - but we will wake up some fine morning and find the army back at this old place in Kentucky & Tennessee, and we will have to toddle back and fight it all over again, - they are even now in the rear of us and are doing more damage in northern Tennessee & Kentucky than we are to them, - It does seem to me that there is a lack of judgement, or energy, or gumption or something - There is something rotton somewhere - I believe the only way to settle up this war, is to kill everything that has got fresh blood, and burn everything that will burn, - in that way we can clean it out as far as we go, and preclude the necesity of furnishing a garrison for all the conquered Teritory, - And another thing, if our strength is not sufficient to cope with them, if we cannot whip them with our army as it is, let us know it and understand it, but my way is to not call for any more of our northern men, but let us grasp the tools that our enemy can give us, that which will weaken him and strengthen us, in a word strike the chains from the blacks, arm them, give them for a watch word "Liberty or death" and lead them on to battle, and [...ssia?] will soon tire of his

Last edit about 2 years ago by SusanE
p.
Complete

p.

[fort?], and blood will cease to flow - I think a negro is just good enough to fight this [fresh?] & I know he is good enough to stop a bullet, but no, there must be just so much fiddling about the constitution as it was, & the constitution as it is, & should be, but they had better throw the constitution to the Devil, and go in on this [musele?}, with every available means, and fight this thing out, and settle it up, and then we can go to work and make a constitution that will suit us all, but do the fighting first

Wednesday Evening Jan 14th

I began this letter last night thinking to write you a short familiar letter, for yourself alone but I wandered off very quick on a subject I had no thoughts of writing about, and I stoped very sudden, - tonight I feel in a different mood, although in not a very communicative one, - I have been suffering from a very severe head ache to day, and I am in not a very pleasant state of mind, and to make it still worse, it commenced raining about noon and tonight it rains for good, just as hard as it can pour down, but still if we have nothing to call us out we are not very uncomfortable, for our tent sheds rain and we have a stone and plenty of wood to keep us warm, but it sounds lonesome and dreary, much more so than what it would be if we were at home under a good shelter, - I think I shall

Last edit about 2 years ago by SusanE
p.
Complete

p.

know how to appreciate a quiet little home fireside, if I ever live to have one again

I received your letter and Jaspers today and it was quite a treat, it was the best letter you have written although I'll bet you did not know it but Jaspers letter shows an evident want of practice in that direction, and I would suggest that he practice writing to me once a week, - he will find it to be a great benefit to himself and a pleasure to me, - I forgot to say in my last letter that your new dress was "real pretty" which I intended to do. - it is only another evidence of your good judgement - I am very glad, and thankful that you should dream that we were on the top of the mountain it was very kind of you, - and also to prophesy that it was some promotion that awaited me. - and now I must tell you what the Colonel offered me to day, - he made a formal offer of the Adjutancy of this Regiment to your husband this day, and to send for my Lieutenants commission immediately, to date from the time that Jerome left - well, I hear you ask, did you accept it? - he said, in this connection, that it was his design to dispense these favors, to those who had earned them, by the prompt, faithful, & efficient discharge of their duties, wherever placed, - to let merrit take precedence, which, you will see, was altogether a very flattering speech to be made to such a modest young man, as your husband is, and I have not the least idea in my mind but what the temperature of his patriotism went up several degrees, just for the time being

Last edit about 2 years ago by SusanE
Displaying all 4 pages