Letter from Frank to Fanny Hall. Camp Near White Oak Church, Va.
Jan 26th (Monday) 1863
Camp Near White Oak Church
Own Dear Wify,
Here we are back again. The expedition
has failed entirely. We have had a very eventful time & I have prepared
for you a Journal of about 40 sheets, 160 pages & will send it off as
soon as possible, There have been no mail facilities during our marches.
We have received our mail but not yet sent any. Your dear letters have come,
dear wify. You ask, have I forgotten you? Oh, my own one how could you feel
so? If you could have been with own hubby & have known his constant thoughts
of you. All the way he has written to you in sun shine and in rain, in mud
& hail. You would know differently, but I think own Fanny Fan knows
differently now.
We really did stick completely in the mud.
We were on the eve of a fearful battle, but the rain came down the night
before, drop by drop, little by little, & destroyed the plans of men.
Excellent illustration for Sabbath school, is it not? I have written quite
in detail & will send it.
This morning I was washing myself outside
of the tent & a great bubble came in the soapsuds & I saw a little
man in it with his legs apart. It was the image of your little hubby and
he stood & marched himself round so as to make of the image a regular
F that stands for my own little Fannie Fan, does it not. I will write in
my Journal & finish up. Yesterday it being Sunday & of course I did
not write then but I wrote a good deal of the time since I have been away.
I will try to write now a little every day, a short one for we will probably
be in camp a few weeks at least. We are all as comfortable here as possible
in the same old tent before the same old fireplace & here I can write
to my own wify. It is a beautiful day and how fair to be beautiful for some
time. How strange it is that we have failed since we tried yesterday. It
makes me feel that Providence was for the South & against us, Some officer
of another regiment & I reminded him of Robert Bruce & the Spider
web. The first few lines Bruce followed they might have said the same that
Providence was against his cause & yet Bruce gained in the end &
proved it otherwise.
Good by own dear one. I am so glad dear Grandma is better, give her my love & a kiss & a kiss to own wify from her own ever loving hubby, her own Franky.