Monday, November 5, 2012

1862 November 6 Union Grove, Pennsylvania

        Union Grove
    November 6th 1862

Dear Brother
             I heard this
morning that you had
been promoted, and I
determined to write to
day to tell you how very
glad I was to hear of it,
especialy as you desearve
it so fully.  I hope dear
Brother that you will
not be placed in any
more danger from
your promotion, for if
you were, I would be
sorry, instead of glad

[page 2]
that you had been
promoted. we want to
here very much from
you. all the particular
all that we have heard
has been from the news=
papers.
Willie is getting along
very well at school with
his lessons, especially
with his arithmetic.
Sister is very much
pleased with the
readiness with which
he adds up the long
columns of figures.
I study regularly at
home with sister now
every day, particularly
french.  I spend an hour
studying french every
day, and one in saying
it to sister, and sister

[page 3]
thinks that by next
spring I will be able
to read.
Grandma has been sick
but she is quite well
now. she is very anxious
to hear from Uncle
Alfred and from you.

[letter continues in another hand]
My dearest Charlie
                            I sent quite
a long letter to you to the Post
Office this evening, but coming
across Nina's little note, I cannot
resist the temptation to add
a few lines, before folding it up-
My desire to see and talk with
you over the sudden realization
of your ambitions hopes for the
present, is so strong that I long
to join Aunt Sarah on a hurried
visit to the Fleet--The news
almost stunned me for a little

[page 4]
time to-day, and at first I thought
far more of Father than of you
-for which you will readily
forgive me.  But, as I think of the
importance of this early promotion,
of the grave bearing it must have
on your whole future career, and
the grave responsibilities it entails
upon you, I have no interest that
does not center around you--You
are now fairly before the country:
a case of promotion so sudden
and so rare cannot fail to attract
observation and, if any opportunity
of distinction presents itself, you
may be a popular hero at an
age when most men are at school.
My great fear is that the con-
sciousness of this may lead you to
court unnecessary danger-conduct
which, in you, would be not only
idle but criminal--On the whole
I am disposed to believe that your

[remainder of letter missing]

Nina Ellet and her sister Mary Virginia Ellet, later Cabell, to their brother Charles Rivers Ellet, upon his promotion to Colonel and command of the ram Queen of the West, the same boat commanded by their late father Charles Ellet, Jr., mortally wounded in the naval assault on Memphis. Charles R. had received popular acclaim for raising the Union flag over that city.  Uncle Alfred was the younger brother of Charles Ellet, Jr., and a Union brigadier general.  Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell later became a founding officer to the Daughters of the American Revolution

MSS 276

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