A week of intense anxiety was relieved by the news of your safety

Joseph Culver Letter, September 7, 1864, Page 1[google-map-v3 width=”400″ height=”300″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”hybrid” mapalign=”right” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”false” pancontrol=”false” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”false” streetviewcontrol=”false” scrollwheelcontrol=”false”  addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”33.866348; -84.46611{}1-default.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

Head Quarters, Co. “A” 129th Regiment Ills. Vols. Infty.
Chattahoochie River, Georgia
September 7th 1864
My Dear Wife

Your letters of the 23rd & 25th August came to hand yesterday evening. To “Our Father” be all praise for his loving kindness and tender mercies. A week of intense anxiety was relieved by the news of your safety.1 I would that I were more worthy of all the blessings bestowed upon me. As the mails are open again, I hope to hear from you often; but, as we are so far from the city, we get ours very irregularly.2 Yesterday being the first we have recd. for 10 days.

Since the troops left here, it is very dull, and we get no news. The Campaign is over for the present, and I took advantage of the earliest opportunity, 3 days ago, to send up an application for a “Leave of Absence.”3 There are so very many applications in that my chances seem very poor. I could do no better than try; even should I succeed, I will wait until after the troops are paid off.

Dr. [Darius] Johnson and Allen Fellows enjoy very good health. Allen has been pitching horse shoes in the Company all afternoon. He feels a little blue as he has not recd. a letter from his wife for a long time; his last was dated 16th or 18th of August. Dr. Johnson is in Atlanta.

The stamps you sent never arrived; I suppose there is a shirt also on the way. They will probably arrive soon.

I recd. a letter from Bro. Harry and Sister Jennie [Cheston] yesterday dated Aug. 20th. All were well, but they say nothing of Mother [Culver] and Hannah’s anticipated visit to the West. The farms were to be offered for sale on the 23rd August.4

Sergt. Gaff has been selling me, I suppose, or else you are sadly mistaken. He told me a few days ago that by a letter he recd., dated the 21st Aug., he was informed of an acquisition to his family of a fine Baby Boy.

Your letter of P.M. August 25th made me feel very anxious, and I did not dare hope that any further news would reach me until next mail, but I was most happily disappointed in finding a Post Script, dated just 12 hours later, containing such glorious “news.” You are certainly a “paragon” in your line.

May God restore you speedily to health and strength. I believe the desire of your heart has been granted unto you. I prayed that it might be so. Let our hearts be thankful for all the blessings we have received. I would be very happy, indeed, to give the carress you desire, & hope I may be blessed with the opportunity before long. I have written every day for the last two weeks, so that you must have quite a collection of mail when the communication opened.5

With the earnest hope that my application may be successful, and that I may very soon have the privilege of uniting my voice with yours in praise to “Our Father” for all his mercies, I remain as ever,

Your Affectionate Husband
J. F. Culver

  1. Mary Culver had given birth to a son, Howard Dunmire, on Aug. 25, 1864. []
  2. The 2d and 3d Brigades, Third Division, XX Army Corps, were stationed in Atlanta, six miles southeast of the fortified camp occupied by Colonel Harrison’s 1st Brigade. []
  3. Captain Culver on Sept. 5, 1864, had written to the assistant adjutant general, Army of the Cumberland: I have the honor to request a leave of absence for 30 days for the purpose of visiting my family in Pontiac, Livingston County, Ill. My wife has been in delicate health all summer and is now quite ill. My child and my father have died since I entered service. I have not received a leave of absence since I enlisted Aug. 2, 1862. I have never been absent from my command either with or without leave, except on duty. 1st Lt. John W. Smith is serving with the company to which I am attached and my services can readily be spared for the period desired. Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers, NA. []
  4. To settle the estate of Father Culver, it was necessary to sell the family farms in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. []
  5. General Wheeler, with a formidable mounted force, in mid-August had been sent by General Hood to operate against the railroads over which Sherman supplied his armies. The Rebels had attacked Dalton, a station on the Western & Atlantic, but were repulsed. After breaking the subject railroad in several places and cutting the telegraph, Wheeler’s horsemen swept into East Tennessee. When they returned from East Tennessee at the end of August, Wheeler and his cavalry raided the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. Track was twisted, bridges burned, and the telegraph cut between Nashville and Wartrace. While labor crews repaired the railroad and telegraph, Wheeler, pursued by strong Federal columns, retreated into north Alabama. Damage had been repaired by the 10th, when the first through train in 11 days left Nashville for Chattanooga. O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt. V, pp. 789, 844; Cox, Atlanta, p. 196. []
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