(CIVIL WAR CONFEDERATE) [James Rachel] Letter describing th

Sale 2380 - Lot 90

Unsold

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) [James, Rachel?] Letter describing the depredations of guerrilla rangers in the South Carolina upcountry. Autograph Letter Signed, apparently to her son Thomas Elias James (signed "remain your dear father & mother untill death, to my deare son Thomas E. James"). 4 pages, 9 x 6 1/2 inches, on one folding sheet; minimal wear. Anderson, SC, 21 January 1864

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Rachel James (1811-1870) was the wife of John J. James (1801-1880); they were farmers in Anderson County in the western corner of South Carolina. She writes to her son about the activities of the irregular rangers who were patrolling their neighborhood, doling out justice on behalf of the Confederacy: "The rangers is out both day & night. Laste Friday they was suppose to be & laste Saturday they caught Bud Johnson & took him to jail & on Friday night they caught Southeron & he got loose & a Saturday they was hunting of him again. . . . Alice woulden tell where he was & they draged here all over the old field. . . . Paw went to Greenvill to get law for them but Paw coulden find any for them but it is candelous to here how they do behave. . . . If it had bin me I would have shot him certain. . . . If they have got any use for them in the Army they had better keep them there, for if they don't & send them here some one or nother will kill them." Regular troops also posed a problem to a neighbor: "They was 14 hundred soldiers come by there & they killed here cow & old Mrs. Blasingame bull. . . . They payed here 100 & 7 dollars for here cow." With a full typed transcript.