A Letter For Sarah
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A Letter For Sarah
"On to Richmond," was a common cry of Washington
residents in the summer of 1861. "Push those rebel troops
back to the plantations of the south."
The Union soldiers, fearing for their lives, were not anxious for the battle that would soon follow. Confederate General Beauregard, with 20,000 troops, held the railroad center at Manassas Junction while General Joseph Johnston's 10,000 troops were standing at the ready in the Shenandoah Valley.
Sullivan Ballou, a major in the Second Rhode Island Volunteers, had mixed feelings when he wrote home to his wife a week before the battle of Bull Run.
"July 14, 1861, Washington D.C."
"Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow, and lest I shall not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.
"I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not falter. I know how American civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the revolution and I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay the debt.
"Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield.
"The memory of all the blissful moments I've enjoyed with you come crowding over me and feel most deeply grateful to God and you that I've enjoyed them for so long.
"And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us.
"If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
"Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish, I have sometimes been.
"But, oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love; I shall always be with you in the brightest day and the darkest night. Always, always.
"And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath. Or the cool air oer your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
"Sarah, do not mourn me dead. Think I am gone and wait for me for we shall meet again."
Sullivan Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run... a handful of days after the letter was written.
Editor's Note: Jadon Gibson is a widely read Appalachian writer from Harrogate, Tennessee. His writings are both historical and nostalgic in nature.
Editor's Note
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