1862 October 28 Camp near Winchester

Camp near Winchester
Thursday morning, Oct. 28, 1862
How did you spend last Sabbath, Ella dear?  Was
your mind again filled with anxious apprehensions about
our soldiers in their exposure to the inclement weather,
and did you "friend" call forth more than an equal
share of solicitude?  The day was wet, cold and cheer-
less in camp; but I believer that I would have shivered
here through it all, if I had not remembered my
promise to take good care of myself for your sake.
So with our surgeons, I went off to my bro. Bart-
lett's, and there I spent a comfortable day and
night, once more enjoying table, bed and the
shelter of a roof.  If such beneficent influence is
exercised our me by my betrothed, how complete will
be the control of my bride, and how much I will owe to
her watchful, tender love!  Yesterday was cold &
blustery; but at dusk the wind lulled, and
the new moon and the stars of the cloudless sky
and the hundred fires that burnt cheerfully in all
the woods around were a glorious spectacle.  Perhaps
the sublimity of the heavens and the picturesqueness
of the landscape were enhanced in my eyes by the

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charming letter of the 20th I had just received from my beloved
(I do not hesitate to call you according to my  feelings,
and I will venture to suggest that another word
than "ahem!" following the significant pronoun "my"-
only it isn't a pronoun--would sound more sweetly
from you lips, and read more sweetly from you pen,
my lovely and beloved Ella.)  Your letter is full of
precious hints, if not of other expressions of devoted
affection.  It is a heresy in you, however, to think
the love of our sex towards yours to be in the inverse
ratio of the declaration of love on you part.   Be-
sides, your love to me is so "calm and reasonable"
that I wonder you should feel any reserve or delicacy
in telling it frankly: if it were more "impetuous," the
case might be different.
                                        I am sitting on a
rail, just having quit our sofa because too far
from the fire.  And verily, the pungent smoke threat
ens to drive me from my new position.  I had scarcely
taken out pen, ink and paper before the order came
to be ready for moving in a moment's warning, but
I am resolved to put off preparation to the last mo-
ment that I may write to my darling----she will be

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so disappointed a week hence, if I do not write!
You will wish to know what is the stir, and whither
we are bound; but we quietly bundle up, asking no
questions and forming no conjectures.  I don't think
there is any fighting on hand to-day.  McClellan
is reported to have left Harper's Ferry several days
ago.  Until your letter came last evening, I
had been making my plans under the mistake
that Danville was the county seat of Pittsylvania,
How far the Court House is from Spring Grove, and
in what direction I know not.  I expect to be in
Danville Thursday evening, Nov. 13, and at the
Grove Friday by the stage, unless my journey should
be hindered in some unexpected way.  If we move
nearer the rail-roads, I may be there a day earlier.
I will expect, therefore, to go from Captain Estes' to
the Court House in company with some friend of yours
after that important writ, the license.  I repeat my
request that you will send me a letter to the care of A.
G. Brown, Richmond, so as to reach there about Mon-
day the 10th.--The day I will leave camp.  I write
with certainty of my going, for though I have not had
time to hear from my furlough, I entertain no doubt that

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it will be granted.  You again refer to your plan
of teaching; but you have learned before this time
that I "advise" against it, and if I dared be so bold,
would refuse "consent."  You must employ yourself
next year in writing to me, my darling.  I am de-
lighted that you leave to my "superior judgment" the
decision of our nuptial day.  In submission to
the Providence of God, I appoint it as early as
possible, and may He grant of  his mercy that we
may ever have reason to remember it with grateful
joy.  You retire to your room to read again and
again my letters: I stray far off, and lie down
in the sun as it shines on some field to take
out all your letters, and go over and over them
dwelling with special delight on every word of
love.--Poor Mr. Ware! I do fervently commend him
to God, and pray that he may be speedily restored to
health.  I do not feel painfully anxious about you health,
my own Ella; but I do beseech our Father that the
scourge may be kept from the dear girl for whose love I
daily thank him, and from all the house in which she
abides.  If I have an opportunity to write this evening or early
to-morrow, I will inform you further concerning our marching or
-ders,  With all my heart, Yours,  J.C. Granberry.

John Cowper Granberry, 1829-1907, formerly a chaplain at the University of Virginia and later a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

MSS 4942