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ASHAEL SUMNER DEAN
CIVIL WAR LETTERS TO
HIS FAMILY
Port Royal, Aug 14 1864
Dear Virginia
I have been all day waiting for the mail
to be assorted for I was certain your letter would come. It is not all here.
Maybe I will get more mail. We can tell when the mail is coming by signals.
The mail was signaled last eve. I am surprised that you did not receive my
last. I expect it was opened. Now, let me tell you I want you to be very
careful to say I received yours of such a date and then I shall know what one
was taken. Yours was Aug 8. I shall not put money in this until I hear
further. The other I will enclose an orange leaf and a pit for Nellie does
she care for money? I do it to please her. You will buy her what she needs
of course.
Since I wrote last I have been upon two
excursions South and nice time we had too. The Adml. was with us on the last
trip. He is to go again in a few days. He will then go as far as St.
Augustine. It seems familiar to have him with us, yet I am glad he does not
stop long at a time for we are much abridged in our privileges, although we
are on the same basis with his Staff. Just now we have been repairing and
coaling, but shall be ready for Sun. in a few days. We do not know where we
shall go first as we are on "Special Service". You need give yourself no
uneasiness for we make short trips and we know the coast so we can make a
harbor before a storm sets in. They are along shore as you see by the paper I
sent you. God is in the Sea and always near. I soon expect to be transferred
to the FLAMBEAU. She is a larger and more desirable vessel. I shall know in
a few days. The Surgeon there wants a change and the Fleet Surgeon told me to
day I could go there if he would like the exchange. I hope it may come about
for she is large and strong and it is one grade higher.
I have no one on the sick list. No one
has ever complained of their usage at my hands, but have spoken of their good
treatment. I know it is a bad month but I have been in excellent health since
July and am now very well too. I caught cold last week but it is not bad. I
have been so well that I begin to think that hot weather suits me. There is
very little sickness about and no epidemics. In a month the hot weather will
be away. We live on fruit a good deal. We are admirably situated. If we
were blockading off Charleston we could not get a bit of fruit. As it is we
obtain a surplus. I bought 15 melons in one day they were gone. Some of them
were as tall as the table. On T. Butler Key's farm we got all we chose to
take of nice pie squashes. I wish you might have been with me to have
gathered figs and walked under the orange trees with me. It was a beautiful
place but only two negroes are there now and a little stock. We got beautiful
peaches there too and a pig. We had him for dinner Sunday and quite a bite he
made.
THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS FROM A PAGE
WITH NO OPENING . THE CREASES IN THE PAGE, INK COLOR, HANDWRITING, AND
COMMENTS AS TO WHAT OCCURRED IN TIME ALL LEAD ME TO BELIEVE THIS IS THE
CONTINUATION-ed.
Everybody is noisy over Farragut's
victory at Mobile ( Aug. 5, 1864-ed) We shall dress the vessels with flags
and fire a salute in the morning at sunrise. Have we secured our quotas? I
am glad for some poor man that I count one. I would rather be here than run
to California to get rid of the draft. I would not dare run from it. I could
not so much distrust God for I could not see it a duty to get out of it in
that way. I know well enough U. Calvin's people envy us, but they have not
done much but growling in aid of the Government yet I think between H and I we
have done our proportionate bit. Perhaps not nearly so much as we
ought. I hope God in his Mercy will spare us not to you and that we may soon
see the close of this sad state of things. Dear wife forgot that she repeated
much of your letter you wrote in F.R., but I was glad to read it, I assure
you.
I am sorry for Nellie. Give her for two
days or less what you can put on the point of your penknife of "hydray cum
cuta" I mean a grain. Give once in six hours. You have some labeled Hyd. Cum
Crit. It is a light colored heavy powder and at the same time one of these
1/2 p is of quinine. You can get more if this helps her. I am indeed sorry
for Mrs. M. It is hard to lose a boy. My shirts are very pretty and I think
you made a good situation and it appears to be very good too. How much does
it take for a shirt. Your dress looks like the one I got you in B I
think you ....... it in selling the pink one to Annie? You could not replace
it
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