~ To Be Entirely Destitute Is A Very Severe Trial ~
~ 1864 ~
New Castle County, Delaware
Copyright © 1998, Frederick Smoot. All Rights Reserved.
Folded letter sheet.
No postmark.
Addressee:
Mrs. Susan L. Taylor, Newport, KentuckyLetter:
December 31st, 1864Dear Madame,
Officers Barracks, Fort Delaware
Yours of the 25th inst was rec’d this evening also the remittance for which you have my sincere thanks which is all I now have to offer.Although the sum may seem inconsiderable to you it will be of great service to myself. Indeed tis more money than I have had in a great while. We can do tolerably well with very little money but to be entirely destitute is a very severe trial. I saw Capt. B.F. Wright who says he has never rec’d your letter although he wrote you some three months since. I would be pleased to hear from you anytime and if there is any service I can render you, you have but to command me. My father is a lawyer and Secretary of Masonic Lodge at Cedar Bluff, Alabama which is my home address.
Your Sincere Friend,
W. T. Robbins
Notes:
This letter was written during W. T. Robbins’ confinement in a Union Prison at Fort Delaware. This proud officer is writing a letter of thanks for receiving a small sum of money from a Kentucky woman who was a philanthropist to Confederate soldiers incarcerated in Northern Prisons. Fort Delaware is located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. For detail account of Fort Delaware as a Union prison, see “Prisoners’ Mail from the American Civil War,” by Galen D. Harrison.
