1862 September 13 Richmond, Va.

                 Richmond, Sept. 13, 1862

My Dear Miss Ella,
                                           You see
that I address you in a less familiar
and appropriating style than I employed
just before our correspondence was
rudely interrupted by the Yankees.  Per-
haps I have grown more modest and less
presuming, or it may be a little shyness
is felt by me because so long a time has
elapsed since a word passed between us.
Attribute it to any cause except decrease
of interest and affection, and remove
every scruple at the use of that freer
phrase in future--will you not, my
very dear friend?  I can not find lan-
guage to express my congratulations on
your escape from the Yankee lines within
which you have been imprisoned so many months
and my own joy in the opportunity of hearing
from you and the hope of seeing you with

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these eyes--or rather with one of the, for
I am now "one-eyed John," as the old
preacher said when he chose his text from
the two-eyed chapter.  You did not need
that misfortune in order to get on the
blind side of me--did you?  But does
it not seem cruel that I should even
now have no chance to meet you?
I came here Wednesday, and heard the
next day through bro. Bennett that you
had gone to Danville.  I immediately
sent a brief letter to you at that office,
and also wrote bro. Judkins to learn
from Miss Ettie McK. your post-office.
His reply has just been received, and
I hasten to send you this assurance of
continued esteem and love with the
request for an immediate and free re-
sponse.  I have not been with my regi-
ment since my captivity except one
night near Richmond, and I now feel
anxious and under obligation to join them
as soon as possible, though there are grave

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difficulties of reaching their
present quarters in Maryland, Pennsylva-
nia ore somewhere else--But for you,
I would start early next week--per-
haps would have started yesterday or
to-day.  But I must at least hear from
you, and receive your assurances that
those months during which all commu-
nication between us has been stopped
have not diminished, but increased
those more than friendly sentiments sug-
gested with great delicacy in the last
letter I  got from you.  that letter did
not reach me for weeks after it was
written, and then I was on the Peninsu
la near Yorktown. It would have been
promptly answered, if I had known any
opportunity to send you a reply.  If I
had believed you would stop in Danville
I would have gone there this week.  In ad-
dition to my fear that when I got here,
I would still not have accomplished my
object, I was detained by intelligence from

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Dr. Massie that he would meet me here
Thursday or Friday.  He has come from
Arkansas on a visit, but did not arrive
in the city either of those days.  I expect him
this afternoon, and am hurrying to close
this sheet in time to see him at the
depot.  I have so much to say to
you, and there is so much about which
I would enquire. But a heart full
of trust and love--is not that enough
and will it not be an acceptable
offering?  And will not my dear
Ella, after all these trials if separa-
tion and anxiety, write me that she
will not withhold longer what I have
been asking so long--her heart and
hand?  If so, may not the kind Provi-
dence that has watched over us through
these vicissitudes, reserve for us years
of happiness in each other's love?
  Please write at once, and direct to
the care of Rev. A. G. Brown.
                 Yours with true affection,
                 J. C. Granberry

John Cowper Granberry, 1829-1907, had been a Methodist chaplain at the University of Virginia in 1861.  He served as chaplain to several regiments in Pickett's division and was sounded and captured during the Seven Days Battle.  In 1882 he was elected Bishop.  Ella became his second wife.

MSS 4942