1862 March 19 Liberty Hall, Nelson County,Va.

Liberty Hall March 19th 1862

Dear Grandpa [General John Hartwell Cocke]

Pink goes down again
to-morrow to finish her visit home & I
write a note by her to say that the cuttings
& trees have never come to hand tho' I gave
directions for them to be sent by the boat
& have looked for them every Boat.

If they have been sent to the lock,
please ask Mr Denton to ship them
on the mail packet & I will be responsible
for the freight.

I have secured a substitute for the war
& shall act as overseer & manager both
for the coming year. It has been my
most earnest wish to be in the service
from the beginning of the war but no persuasions
can induce my wife from being desperately
opposed to it--and I have determined to do
all I can for the country at home in the way
of caring for the volunteers' families--With
much love to all at Bremo & Recess I remain
as ever Your affectionate Grandson

P B Cabell

Philip Barraud Cabell, 1836-1904, one of the few ante-bellum students at the University of Virginia to obtain a Master's degree. After the war he was a professor at Urbanna University in Ohio and later a minister of a Swedenborgian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. His wife Julia Calvert Bolling Cabell, known as Pinkie, had been a popular Virginia belle before their marriage.

MSS 38-111