An East Texas Family's Civil War

The Letters of Nancy and William Whatley, May–December 1862

John T. Whatley, John T. Whatley

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780807171325
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

During six months in 1862, William Jefferson Whatley and his wife, Nancy Falkaday Watkins Whatley, exchanged a series of letters that vividly demonstrate the quickly changing roles of women whose husbands left home to fight in the Civil War. When William Whatley enlisted with the Confederate Army in 1862, he left his young wife Nancy in charge of their cotton farm in East Texas, near the village of Caledonia in Rusk County. In letters to her husband, Nancy describes in elaborate detail how she dealt with and felt about her new role, which thrust her into an array of unfamiliar duties, including dealing with increasingly unruly slaves, overseeing the harvest of the cotton crop, and negotiating business transactions with unscrupulous neighbors. At the same time, she carried on her traditional family duties and tended to their four young children during frequent epidemics of measles and diphtheria. Stationed hundreds of miles away, her husband could only offer her advice, sympathy, and shared frustration. In An East Texas Family's Civil War, the Whatleys' great-grandson, John T. Whatley, transcribes and annotates these letters for the first time. Notable for their descriptions of the unraveling of the local slave labor system and accounts of rural southern life, Nancy's letters offer a rare window on the hardships faced by women on the home front taking on unprecedented responsibilities and filling unfamiliar roles.

DECEMBER 1862

DECEMBER 1, 1862

WJW TO NFW

“I often think of my little children and sometimes fear that they . . . will perhaps never have the same attachment for me they once had.”

Taylor’s regiment and WJW move by boat from Little Rock to Arkansas Post . . . A stop at Pine Bluff . . . Drunkenness on board . . . Teetotaler WJW reflects on leadership, whiskey, and abstinence . . . Urges NFW to write . . . Dreams of her . . . Will his children know him? . . . Writes to his father in Alabama . . . Concern about the stock, especially the hogs . . . Martin will care for the hogs.

Camp Near Arkansas Post

December 1st 1862

My dear wife

Eight days ago to day I wrote to you from Little Rock, and stated to you that we would take a boat for this place in thirty minutes from the time I was writing. We were then loading the boat but did not get off until the next morning about nine o’clock when we started aboard the Julia Roane, and landed here Friday morning about 9 a.m. The river was dug low and we could not travel at night which caused us to be three days getting there and we were then two days ahead of the rest of our brigade for some of them arrived in last night. They were on large side wheel Steamers and run onto several sand bars which delayed them considerably. The river is very crooked and full of logs and sand bars. I can give but little idea of the distances we traveled from my own observation, but I believe they call it two hundred and forty miles by water, but it is not more than half that distance by land. We had a very disagreeable trip. The boat was very much crowded and all on deck and the weather quite cold on the river. We came down to Pine Bluffs and landed about three hours and had quite a jollification, the boys found some good old (how could you so [colloquialism referring to aged whiskey]) at only ten dollars a quart and I think in two hours time there was fifty drunk men on board and as many more in a good lively humor what you might call gentlemanly tight. For my part I got as drunk as I ever want to be just by looking at the balance without taking a drop myself. I have got to take my first drink yet, and experience has taught me that I am better off without it, and I expect to return home to you, without taking any of the foul stuff which only makes a man drunk and a fool and destroys his health and unfits him for business. Our col [colonel] fortunately was sober and has had all the officers who were drunk under arrest ever since we have been here which seems to consume of them very much and I hope it may be the means of keeping them sober in future, for if there is any thing I do abhor it is drunkenness especially in men who are in prominent positions, for we have too much at stake in this matter to be ruled and governed by drunk men. I saw some men drunk that day I never saw drunk before. But I believe the rule will hold good, that if a man drinks at all he is liable to drink too much. I have seen Hiram May & John Terrell here. They belong to Gillespies regiment. May will start home in a few days, and I will send this letter by him if I don’t get an opportunity sooner, but I reckon our mail will be sent off tomorrow and if so I will send this there and write to you again by then if I have any news to write you. I have succeeded in getting a quire [twenty-­five sheets] of paper lately and a supply of envelopes which fits me properly for writing to you, and you may expect letters regular, and recollect darling that I keep you accountable to answer them. For I left you a plenty of paper and will expect you to keep it for the express purpose of writing to me, for you know I do love to get a letter from you and hear from my little pets. Yesterday was warm and cloudy nearly all day and last night we had a good shower of rain. I went to bed and sleep while it was raining and dreamed of my darling safe at home. I thought I was with you and enjoying myself as in days of yore and felt perfectly happy. But when I awoke and found that I was mistaken and instead of being at home I was in the Arkansas swamp my hopes were all blasted. But the time is coming I do believe when I will be permitted to return to you again and hold you once more to my bosom where you can rest in peace and live in the full enjoyment of connubial bliss. I often think of my little children and sometimes fear that they will become in a great measure weaned from me, and will perhaps never have the same attachment for me they once had, children you know are not like grown people. They can easily forget and take up with any new thing that comes along. I know that I will find you always the same, and I intend to be as true to you as I know thou art to me. You know little Jane has even been troubled with a cough and I dread the consequences of her having measles, but I know you will take all the care of her that you possibly can and I submit you all into the hands of our heavenly father, who will protect you from all harm. I never lay my head on my pillow to sleep without thinking of you all and asking his blessing upon you. I hope you will all get along well and keep good health. You will not have to have the measles but once and I know your ma will assist you all she can and let Jane stay with you as much as she can. I am sorry to hear that Jesses health is so bad and think if I was in his place I would not go into the service anymore before spring unless I regained my health and got stout again, for I dread the winter here very much. A great deal of it is fatal. I wrote a letter to my father [Seaborn Jane Thornton Whatley, Calhoun County, Alabama] a few days ago since informing him of my where abouts and giving him in detail the condition of matters at home as nigh as I knew them I know that he will be a friend to you if you should ever need it. But I do hope you will get along well, and have good health and not suffer for any of the necessarys of life. If you are deprived of some of the luxuries I learn that you are all still hard run for cotton cards and will consequently have a hard time making clothes but I hope you will continue to have a good resolution and succeed in keeping clothes plenty. I wrote to you sometime since to send me my other jeans & rubber coat if you had an opportunity. I would like very well to have both but if you can only get a chance to send the overcoat, as I can make out to wear the one I have but it is too light and if I had that one I know I could dispose of the one I have. Harlon Woodum left there about the 10th of August for clothing for the regiment, and I suppose from some letters I have lately seen from Texas that some of the people there are not advised up to this date that he is in Texas or that any one had been sent for clothing for this regiment. A large majority of the regiment have a very contemptible opinion of him. James Walker was over and stayed all night with me last Sunday night. He is in very good health. I don’t visit other regiments but very little as we are now denied that privilege and if we go we either have to slip out of the guard line or make application to three different offices for a pass and have them all to sign it, which they frequently refuse to do, and for my part I prefer to stay in my company than make any such application. You must keep me well posted about matters at home. You must have your hogs attended to, marked regularly, and see that none of them are lost or go wild if you have good mast.1 Mr. Martin must attend to my John’s hogs if he has not done it. I would like to know how much corn you have made. Peas, potatoes and to be kept and dried from time to time of what you have done and how you are getting along generally, for I would greatly prefer hearing about you and yours than any thing else that can or may transpire in that country. If you have plenty of turnips you must not let your stock suffer for you know that they will keep them fat and yield a fine chance of milk and butter is worth here a dollar a pound. You must send me some tobacco. It is worth here two dollars a plug which will nearly take the whole of infantry wages, and I suppose we will only draw that from the time we were dismounted. You must read my letters to the children and tell them I want them to be good boys and girls and obedient unto you. I never lay my head on my pillow that I don’t think of you and ask god to be merciful unto you. I will write to you again when I get your next letter. And if we should leave here sooner I will advise you of the fact though I suppose you get the Little Rock paper. Give my love to your pa, family, and all other relations and tell them I would be glad to have a letter from any of them at any time. Write soon to your affectionate husband.

W. J. Whatley

1. For “mast years,” see Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, 19—21.

DECEMBER 4, 1862

WJW to NFW

“I believe the biggest half of our stay here is about something to eat and the other part is about wives and sweethearts. . . . I submit you all in the hands of our heavenly father who will protect from all harm.”

Misery of Arkansas Post . . . The Confederates are trapped . . . Rain and pneumonia . . . Winter quarters . . . Food and appetite . . . Wives’ and sweethearts’ talk . . . Yearning for NFW . . . Take care of little Jane.

Arkansas Post, Ark 1

December 4th 1862

My Dear Wife,

I write to you from this place the 1st inst, four days ago but as Mr. Harper will start from here for Texas [Henderson] tomorrow I will write to you again knowing that you are always anxious to hear from me and to know my whereabouts and condition of my health which is about all I have at the present time to communicate to you. We are still here in camp in one of the wettest and muddiest places you can conceive of. Our waggons landed here last evening but are on the opposite side of the river from us, and the arrangement for crossing the river is very bad, and it will take them several days to get over, and when they get here I suppose we will move a mile or two from this place and go into winter quarters. It has been raining a slow rain nearly ever since we have been here which has made our encampment very sloppy. There is considerable sickness here now, and it is increasing daily. Doctor Smith told me yesterday that he had seven cases of pneumonia and several others that he thought would soon develop themselves, and thinks there will be a great deal of sickness here if we don’t leave here soon. When I wrote to you last I had heard no talk of winter quarters, but our Col says we are going into them and I reckon there is no doubt of it. I am told that the balance of the division (except our brigade) are going into quarters up in a few miles of Brownsville, where we were dismounted last summer. So we will be so far from them that there can be little or no communication with them. I have not seen Jimmy Walker in two or three weeks and consequently don’t know anything about him. My health is as good as usual, but think if we don’t all have pneumonia here it will not be for want of a good chance. Colley is in fine health, went out hunting yesterday with two or three others and brought in two deer and two fine turkeys and you ought to have been here this morning to have seen me frying steaks (of which you know I am very fond). At dinner we had roast turkey and a fine venison stew which has put us all in good humor and made us nearly fat. It would astonish you to be here and see us eat. I don’t believe I was ever so hearty in my life. I believe the biggest half of our stay here is about something to eat and the other part is about wives and sweethearts. The...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• MAPS
• FOREWORD
• EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
• NOTE ON EDITORIAL METHOD
• CAST OF CHARACTERS
• MAY 1862
• JUNE 1862
• JULY 1862
• AUGUST 1862
• SEPTEMBER 1862
• OCTOBER 1862
• NOVEMBER 1862
• DECEMBER 1862
• EPILOGUE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• SOURCES
• INDEX