Jan 14, 1862. Wrote to Winston. In the afternoon Henry & George carried the letters over.

[Rebecca] Jan 14, 1862. Write Wm and the boys. Rosa missed her chill and seems playful.

[Winston Stephens to Octavia Stephens]

                                                                                                Fernandina Jan 14, 1862.

My Dear Good Wife

                How glad I was to receive your nice, long letter & see you all were well & every thing progressing so finely.  I do sincerely think I have the best little Wife in the whole world.  (Tell Mother to except present company for her sake)  You cannot concive how happy I am to know I have such a treasure as yourself & our dear Rosa.  If every one loved home and their family as I do, there would not be so much room for complaint among the sex you belong to, but some are destitute of all honor to their Wives, or love of home as I have evidence of here in many cases.  Men come here & forget the embraces of their dear Wives and throw themselves away upon the common strumpet, but My Dear "though I say it that should not say"  You may trust your old man as God knows my marriage vow has been kept & I have never felt the least inclination to break it so help me God.  I am constantly thinking of you & ours & wishing to be with you & I often take you out of my trunk & imagine you are before me & reality.  Genl Hopkins has not returned & I am in Command as usual & find it rather tedious, but the men are generally a good set & less troublesome than any Company in the Regimant ‑ We went out on Batallion drill this morning for the 2nd time & we were highly complimented for our solderly appearance and prompt action ‑ Yesterday Genl Lee reviewed the Troops on the Island ‑ & this Regiment (the 4th) received the best praise as they were the best drilled & our Company received praise from Genl Lee for our proficiency in drill considering the short time we have drilled & I would be better satisfied here but some of the men are clamerous about leaving their horses & they take the pains to come to me with all their grivances as they think I can redress them.  This makes my position unpleasant & when the Capt comes I am going to explain to him & he must become responsable for his own acts, as it was him & not me that offered their services here.  Our Company has not improved in health but they are complaining generally of colds, some fever &c, no measles &c yet but they are in the adjoining camps & I dont see how we are to miss ‑ "Now to your questions" ‑

                I have not had mumps. & sunday is the same as any other day here, last sunday however I attended church in the a.m. & pm & heard the Rev Mr Baker who is a good preacher. I have written to Dr Heard & I will write to you as soon as he replies - enclosed you will find a note to Mr Granville Priest & I want the cotton selected as I dont want any of the yellow cotton sent ‑ send him about fifteen hundred pounds & five yards of bagging so that the cotton can be packed & put back in the cotton house then bring the seed & keep them until you want to plant them.  I want the seed spotted as they were last year & not drilled. Though I will be there before then, send the note to Mr Priest & if he can gin the cotton carry it before you commence ploughing ‑ My health is good, I am greatful to the boys for transplanting the trees & their general care of my business.  I hope Burrel had a good burn on the new ground.  I want you to have the fence between the yard & field fixed up ten rails high & the gate in good order so that the hogs cant get in the field from the yard ‑ You must be saving with the corn but have all the slop for the hogs you can & feed them behind the kitchen as you have been.  I am glad Mother does call the negroes every Sunday & feel greatful to her for it.  Tell Burrel to continue his duty as a good servant & make a good crop & I will make him a nice present at the end of the year.

                I hope Loulie will come to see you & then you must kiss her baby for me & if you can spare some to her from me do so - Poor Taylor! I hope he has recovered, also Clara.  They must be careful for if Taylor is killed the coons will eat the corn up. We heard that a fleet of 30 vessels were off New Orleans & a French vessel attempted to pass them & they fired at her & then discovered it was a French vessel & offered an apology which was declined by the Capt of the vessel & then went into New Orleans after that all the fleet left but five, destination not known. Also that the bankers in some of the Northern Cities have refused to advance more money & the treasury was empty – also that a meeting had been held in N.Y. City by 200 of the most influential men and 160 were for peace & 40 for the war – If all this is true it all tends to speedy peace, which God grant may be true as I want to live at home. I will add a P.S. to this before I send it. Give my love to Mother & the boys tell the negroes howdy & accept all you desire from your aff husband for yourself & Rosa ‑ Give love to Clark & family ‑ Yours as ever

                                                                                                Winston Stephens

P.S. Thursday 12 n – we have two cases of measles in camp & now we are all in for it I suppose, but for your sakes I hope I may not have it. Capt H returned last night & this morning he told me he expected to go to Smyrna in one or two weeks. If he does I shall be with you soon. I have urged him to move & I entended he shall have no rest until he does. We will be paid for 1½ months service next week. Some of the boys were out to the light house yesterday & say the Blockade had a white flag but I think they were mistaken – Tell Clark I rec’d his letter and will write if we are not moved soon. I hope Tina will consent to go to Jacksonville as she can be better cared for. Good by & God bless you My Dear

                                                                                                Winston

[Rebecca Bryant to Willie and Davis Bryant]     

                                                                                                Rose Cottage Jan 14, 1862

My dear boys,

                I am again compelled to address you collectively, as the city does not afford material wherewith to frame two letters for my family – and my imagination in these days is not fertile enough to make and interesting story from nothing. I will commence by saying, what you doubtless already suspect, that I am nearly beside myself with delight in hearing from your Father.

                I have had more gloomy forebodings about him the past month, than ever before I think at times it has been only with much effort that I could be cheerful.  I suppose you did not receive any letter from him as you do not mention it.  I am very glad Davis, that you wrote him so promptly ‑ and I hope he will be induced to come to Florida ‑ Yet he will not be contented to remain here doing nothing, and what can he do?  But he must come any how, unless he has something positively lucrative and certain in view, which is not probable ‑ I shall enclose my reply to him with this, that you may send it according to his instructions, addressed to Gen. Huger Norfolk Va. with dime inclosed. Tivie recd. no letter from Winston to-day except the old missing one which he wrote on his arrival in Fernandina – He says in it that he heard in Palatka that six of Gov. Moseley’s negroes had been heard to say that if Lincoln did not free them before the 20^th Jany. they would do it themselves – He wrote to have the guns kept in order and loaded and to tell his brother to see that a patrol was established – he does not fear his own negroes, but thinks Gardner’s might join them if they had a chance. Rosa has had chill & fever on alternate days the past week and looks very pale – we are under the necessity of dosing the poor little thing with Quinine.

                Have you recd. the picture for Grandmother, which I sent to you by Mrs Hopkins? Loulie wrote Tivie she might expect her next Monday. I hope she will come – Aunt Caroline sent me some very useful presents – Her generosity and Aunt Julia’s has supplied me with shoes enough to last through next summer, with those I had and has also replenished my wardrobe with other articles so that I shall have nothing to buy in the Spring, for myself.

                How nice it must be for Willie to be again at his old post at Mr Canova’s! But I fear it will be hard for him to return to camp life. Many thanks to both of you for your kind letters, this is a poor return for the pleasure they afforded me. We think it best not send the bag until Loulie goes down, since we have kept it so long. Tivie says she asked Willie about it and he thought you intended she shd. keep it – We suspected from the sewing it was Mrs Maxey’s – Give my love to her and thank her for her kind letter – I was most happy to receive it. I have not yet recd. the message Mrs Hewitt had for me. It is three hours past the time for Rosa’ chill and she shows no signs of it. All send much love and so does

                                                                                                Yr Mother

                We have not yet ascertained at what time tomorrow the New Boat is expected, therefore must send our letters to town this afternoon – Very glad to hear Mrs Foster has been persuaded to leave home for a short time – My love to her and Beck – You can read my letter to “Father” if you wish.