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ASHAEL SUMNER DEAN
CIVIL WAR LETTERS TO
HIS FAMILY
July 24 1864 Sunday Off Charleston Bar
Dear Virginia,
I am going to begin a little note not
knowing when it may reach you. I have not received your letters. They are in
Port Royal. We have not been there for a week or more having been cruising to
the Northward on dispatch duty. We have been kept in here three days by a
gale, the force of which is not yet spent. After it is smooth enough we shall
go North again, return here and then probably go to P.R I very much question
whether we got our mail for a week and quite as much whether we are able to
sent North in this mail. You will be as thankful as I to learn that we have
been in a safe harbor in the storm and not on the angry sea. I am sure I have
not seen a more severe one. This is its third day. Today has been a quiet
day, but a very dismal one..You see by the date it is Sunday. I expect you
have been to church and heard good sermons and solemn prayers and then have
spent a quiet evening with your birds sending a thought down to you sailor
boy. I am sure of it. I have not heard anything to remind me of Sunday. I
read an account of the sufferings of the early Christians in the South of
France, sung in the Cythera and read from Ephessians. I must say I have felt
more homesick than any day yet. I was so foolish as to count back five months
and then run forward a year. It made me feel more lonesome. Can I be apart
from you a year from now? When I thought of it I did wish so earnestly, but
if God will bring me to you in a year safe and sound or in two I would not
murmur. I hope, I do not know. I would be happy and quite content. Poor wife
does not know where to place her boy now? He does not know himself. We go
anywhere. The other night we had come from Murrell's Inlet, a 170 mile haul,
got almost into moorings at P.R. when we turned about and came here and have
not been there since. Now as soon as tis fair we are going up to the Inlet
again. We got good living again. A beef schooner is here with beef and ice
etc. We are all well as can be expected and as happy as men can be in time of
war away from those we love.
I have seen enough of this station. The
sea is never quiet and we roll all the time. I am seasick no more but it is
very uncomfortable, e.g. to sit down in a chair and to be sent chair and all
across the deck we have to secure everything. I have seen Sumpter fired into
until it is no longer a novelty. Now I scarcely look at the track of a
shell. From the deck I can see the wharves and streets in Charleston, but I
guess I wont go up there this fall.
I believe we shall only do blockade duty
and not often act in the offensive. It is strange that in all our cruisings
we never have seen a suspicious vessel. We have gone nearly 6000 miles by the
log and yet no prize have we taken. Maybe we will yet. I am not anxious for
you to worry and work about my box. I am in no hurry. Any time will do. I
need nothing. I have more need of your presence then anything. Think you and
babies come and see me some day? I wrote to Holbrook yesterday. I have not
written to Louise, shall I? I shall put more with this if I have a chance. I
love you dearly. You are a dear good girl. Happy is every man who has a wife
half as good as you. I love you more and more. Good night, dear
one
Sumner
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