March 2, 1862. In the morning wrote to Winston, just before dinner a Mr Osteen came & brought me a letter from Winston, he is now at Enterprise. Willie and Lewis spent the day here.
[Rebecca] March 2, 1862. A warm day – Sumter arrive at 3 o’clk P.M. – We get our mail at Sunset – A letter from Sister Julia – none from Jacksonville – Tivie has one from Winston at Enterprise where he will remain a week and then come to Volusia with the company.
[Octavia Stephens to Winston Stephens]
Mar 2, 1862
My dear Husband
I have just laid our baby down to sleep, and now sit down to have a little chat with you. I rather think though that I will do all the Chatting, if it can be called so, & it ought not for how much pleasanter it would be to have you here so that we could talk in earnest, this way of sending questions and answers by letter is slow business, but being able to write & read letters is a great blessing, yes letter writing was a great invention. I dont know what I would do if I could not hear from you. You dont know how much I want to see you, the weeks are very long, and I know I will not see you for two or three weeks at least, for Lieut Peterman said his furlough was until the tenth of March. I heard that Lieut Gray went up the river last Monday. The Sumpter was expected on Sunday, & I told Joe to go to the wharf & if Lieut G came to invite him over here, but Joe saw him pass the next morning on the Hattie, while he was at the store. I suppose when you come home you will be Capt as I hear that you will most probably be elected to that office. The night that the men passed here with Capt Hopkins body, four men stopped in the yard and got Jane to cook them some supper, & they said they wished you had come with them, that that d___n Dutch man was too smart, said they had not had any thing to eat in a long time, & seemed he did not want them to "after his eating at Mrs Hopkins." When he came he came through the back yard & asked them, what they came here for without orders. Those men sent to me & wanted to buy some meat, & I gave them some. I suppose I was right, when they found I would not take pay they sent some of it back but I did not take it. Josy or some of the men will tell you of their getting lost that night, it was very dark & Burrel wanted them to take a torch but they said oh no they knew the way, & he says he dont know where they went, but he had to come back three miles to the clear water pond to find the way then go back and find them. I told Tom to go, but B- came & said Lt Peterman wanted him to go & he thought best, as the body was so offensive that he was afraid to trust the mules.
Mrs Hopkins & Bella went to Jacksonville to Mrs Charles Hopkins. Mr C- Hopkins & Henry came in a small boat from Jacksonville & arrived here in the night Monday night. Mother & I went over to see Mrs H Wednesday morning, met Carrie there, we shook hands & she was very agreable to Mother, just as we drove off Miss Allen went in. By the way Mr Gardner will move to No 10 in two or three weeks.
Coming from Mrs Hopkins we came by Tina's & she was thinking of sending old Charley for us, so we stopped & spent the day with her, and Lewis brought the mule home. Just about dinner time & just as Clark got home there came up a tremendous storm.
Edition No. 2.
Just as I was writing the above I heard the big gate open, & looked & saw a man coming, & went out supposing I would hear some news, and it was Mr Osteen, & he did bring me some news. I assure you I was glad to get your few lines. I think you are changed about enough. I am glad there is a prospect of having you nearer, if you can only remain. Mr Osteen took dinner with us, Josy told him to take Jacob & thought I would lend him a hand to cross him, so I sent Tom. I suppose by this time you have received that Miserable scratch of a letter I sent by Sergt Mizzell, with the bundle of clothes. I sent your trunk over to the store yesterday to go with the provisions. I shall now ask Mr Smith to send it tomorrow on the Sumpter. I send your bedding too as you have not countermanded your order. In the left hand corner of your trunk (which you cant help seeing, you will find a box of cake, in the right hand corner back part, you'll find a kettle of lard, which I intended to fry your fish & oysters) inside of that kettle is a cup of butter, in the back part of the trunk is a box of eggs. I found that the pies would not keep this weather. I hope you will get all this safely, and that they will taste good. I am sorry the Pone is burned, but it was my attempt at baking, & was in rather a hurry to get it done & cool to put in the trunk, the one I baked for you last week was too dry to be good, but I hope this is better. I made some quite nice pies last week for you, but of course we ate them as there was no way to send them. Speaking of the pies &c my flour is getting very low, as you said you were going to get more. The syrup is some of Barnes' & perhaps you know as well as Tina & Burrel that his syrup is watered, generally, this is thin, but has a good deal of sugar in it.
I will now finish what I was saying about the storm. Well it was terriffic, the roar of the thunder & falling of the trees was awful, and doors flying open, & rain pouring from the roof, and to cap the climax, Tina went to get the bird & the wind blew so she could not & in coming back her feet slipped & she fell on one knee then over flat on her back. Clark & I got her up & in the house & while he had to hold the door Mother & I used our best efforts to keep her from fainting, we then got her on the bed, shaking dreadfully & got off her wet clothes & covered her up with blankets &c, but she nearly fainted, Minnie frightened and crying most of the time, but by the time we got her straight the worst of the storm was over, before we were done with dinner she (Tina) was up, but with a large place on her knee & quite stiff & lame, but I feared she would not get off as well as that, as Mother said she had made up her mind she would have to stay there that night, but is well with her yet, her boys are here to-day. We had “charley” to come home the trees were so thick in the road that in going round one lot we got lost & went way out in the woods, & got on onw of Gardner’s roads & can back to the old Dean house, & took Clarks house for one else’s and was going there to ask the way home, & laughing at how the folks would laugh at us, when I remembered where I was, I then took the old road, & we got home safely. The fields are sights to behold, Burrel said tell you that if you could see you would almost be willing to declare the field has not been cleaned up. I think it worse than before they rolled at all, it did not do much damage to the corn, he is getting them rolled up pretty fast, but there is a great deal of grumbling about the hard work, and I had some words with Jane & Rachel about things they said day before yesterday, before the boys, they have said little things before, & Henry would not say anything until now he thought it had gone or was going too far. I thought Jane had said a good many things that Rach had said, & threatened to either send her home or have her punished if I heard any more, she said for one thing that she had rather be whipped to death than worked to death, & they or Rach said you used to have to work before you were married but you had not since, & couldn't see why you couldn't ask help to roll logs unless you were afraid you would have to feed them. They were neither of them impudent but yesterday Jane the same as called Henry a liar. I have not said anything more to her, the work is hard & I fear will injure Burrel for his back troubles him so much. I will tell you more of it when you come. Oh Burrel wants to know if he must plough up the stand over patch or not he say there are but few slips there? We had a nice season after the storm but he had to look out for the fence, our cow pen blew down too. I expected to find our house floated away, but not quite, but we had a nice time the next day cleaning up the mixture of soot & rain. Oh all this time I have not said anything about “Pa Pa’s pet”, she is well & I hear her in the other room saying peas Ma’am to get out, she says “danMa” now for Grand Mother. I write a cross here instead of taking another piece because paper is not to be bought, so must be more carefull than ever. I hear that Simpkins is going to run against you again for the Captaincy, I think he must be your evil genius but Mr Osteen thinks no one that will come can beat you.
Mother sends love & says she is glad to hear you are nearer home and hope we will see you soon, so do I. Rosa sends a kiss. I send love & kisses in lots to my dear Husband, lovingly your
Wife
