Letter 51 AMR to Mrs. Moody

Date: 1866 [unknown]
Location: Charleston, South Carolina
Surnames/tags: Moody Wright Charleston March 14th

My dear Mrs. Moody

I have been intending this whole winter to write & enquire how well my Kind friends in Weldon, are getting on in these sad times, but it is only very lately that I have felt strong enough to get through a letter-- I have been very sick with whooping cough, which as you May suppose, went very hard with me, I caught it in the autumn & the cold winter climate of the mountains aggravated it very much, so that I came down here, for the benefit of the mild climate & sea air, which has been of great service to me. I am staying at present with my sister Mrs Heyward, she has been obliged to hire a house, her fine one having been burnt during the evacuation, a most terrible loss in these days. My sister has a fine little girl, her first child after being married five years, so you may imagine how much fuss is made over it, I am one of its God Mothers-- Poor Charleston is rather a sad sight one third of it being in ruins & of course it is thronged with Yankees white & black, soldiers & civilians, they are very much provoked because they cannot get into society, I do not know a lady who knows a Yankee, they do not receive the slightest attention either they or their wives-- The men here are obliged to be polite when they go to see the Yankee officers on business but the ladies never even look at them in the streets-- Genl. Sickles commands here. Now he is better than Sanson who proceeded him-- The stores here are full of pretty things but very dear, & nobody has any money, so we have to content ourselves with looking at them-- The negroes are in general very unwilling to work, but have begun contracting, & it is to be hoped they will work & make something. Col. Rutledge is up on his plantation about 40 miles from here, he has contracted, & has begun work he means to plant cotton rice & corn, I told him when he was here a day or two since that I was going to write to you & he desired his best love, & said he would write but is very busy & half worried to death. He does not look as well in citizen's clothes as in the military but says he feels a great deal more comfortable. I have been wondering whether you ever heard, that by God's mercy he got through this dreadful war unhurt, I daresay you have been uncertain all this time whether he was alive or dead. I am very anxious to hear how you are faring, Mr. Moody must take these times very hardly-- It is bitter indeed, to feel that we are a conquered & ruined people. It is our hard fate & we must submit, but no friendly feeling exists for our conquerors, at least not here, & they must read in the averted faces of the women the contempt & hatred they merit--- When you write, do tell me what has become of the Ransoms, & do give me Miss Patterson's direction. I have written to her but don’t think my direction was right. I hope you will not forget it.

We are having such charming weather. the trees are budding & the birds are singing, & every thing looks so bright & peaceful that one might almost forget the war were it not for the horrid blue coated wretches that meet the eye on every side.

I hope you did not suffer much last spring, when the Yankees passed through, we had a pretty rough time of it, they robbed us of every horse & took a good many men's clothes, but did nothing more, except torment us by coming for something to eat at all hours of the day & night. We had the whole of Stoneman's cavalry, about 10,000 in number--- & they eat up everything in the country, & we almost starved last summer, & had to live almost entirely on vegetables--

I expect to live next Year on the plantation, but the summer I shall spend again in the mountains. One of these days I hope we may meet again My dear Mrs. Moody, though at present there seems but little prospect of it-- Give my love to all members of the family who may be with you & to Mrs. Ellis, with kindest wishes for your welfare & prosperity, & hoping to hear very soon

I remain yours sincerely

A M R

P.S. My direction is care of Messrs. Porcher & Henry

Charleston

S.C

VLR (Virginia Leigh Refo)

A letter to Martha William (Wright) Moody from AMR living in Charleston at the time. I have no idea who she is. Not family, as she addresses the letter to Mrs. Moody. She asks about Ransoms, and maybe she is one. The Ransoms were a prominent family in Northampton Co., NC, one of whom was Confederate General Matt W. Ransom. Or she may be a Rutledge.

Mr. Moody is Martha's husband, John Mason Moody, Sr. Miss Patterson is Julia Patterson, daughter Martha's aunt and uncle, Alice Wren (Crump) Patterson and John Hamilton Patterson, mentioned in several other letters, (# 23 and # 24) and the author of # 19 and # 35. Julia died in 1866. Mrs. Ellis was a neighbor in Northampton.

There was a Yankee raid into Northampton County in the spring of 1865, which came within about ten miles of Woodlawn, the Moody's home.

Date: 1866.

Acknowledgement

• Many thanks to cousin Virginia Leigh Refo whose research and transcriptions added to this profile. The originals were donated to the Library of Virginia in 2004 by Liz Edens Vermillion with the help of Virginia Refo Moody Family Papers, 1750-1881. Accession 40535, Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.