Letter from L.D. Bradley to Minnie Bradley

Full Title

Letter from L.D. Bradley to Minnie Bradley

Description

Letter from L. D. Bradley to Minnie Bradley, dated April 29, 1865 and sent from Galveston, in which he writes about his concern for her health, mentions the death of President Lincoln and his presumptions about its effect on the war.

Transcription

Galveston, April 29th 1865,
Jimmy McIlveen,
Taz Watson
Jim Blackmon

Little Honey(?),

Since writing to you I have received your letters of the 9th, 13th & 16th of April; the two first arrived two or three days since, the last, this evening. I have been very uneasy about the baby; your letter received this evening, however, somewhat, though not entirely, reassures me. I am becoming a good deal uneasy about you also Little Darling; in your other letters you mention that you have had for some time a very troublesome cough; in the last one, you say you have quite a severe pain in the shoulder and breast. Little Honey, my own darling little wife, you must take more, and better, care of yourself. I knew perfectly well your disposition to worry, and do all the work about the children yourself; to get up in the night to wait upon them &c; now that must be stopped. You ought to recollect, Little Honey, that with me it is exactly as if I had no one in the world to love, or be loved by, but yourself. It is very true that I love the children, but, Little Darling, when I think of you in comparison with any one, or all, others, it seems to me that you are my “all in all”. I have commenced writing back(?) this evening, on account of having just received your letter, & having some leisure time, but do not expect to finish until to-morrow; Jimmy McIlveen & Taz Watson start up on Monday, that is day after to-morrow, and I will send this letter by one of them. By the way, Little Honey, two or three of the company have come from home recently, all of whom say that they saw your father in town about the time they were starting, & still no letter from you by any of them. I know perfectly well that it is not your fault, but then I would like to know the reason for it. There is no late news of interest except what you have probably learned through the papers. Lincoln & Seward being killed seems to be regarded as a kind of offset to the surrender of Lee & his army. The number surrendered by Lee has settled down to something less than 12,000, and they seem to have been mostly detailed men, reserves &c; if such is the case they are but very little loss. The loss in machinery, stores &c, however, was very large; for the Confederates, it was immense; and one which will not be easily recovered from. I have not a particle more of doubt as to the result of this war now, then I had three years ago, or at its commencement; I think however it is fast tending towards a guerrilla arrangement, In some respects that would suit me very well; there would then be no dodgers or shirkers; every body would have to be on one side or the other; and, best of all, I think it would take but a very short time for guerrillas to make a clean riddance of Speculators, extortioners, and all the other species of the [illegible] kind, who have been infesting the confederacy. On the other hand, it would be terrible on women & children, and in that I am particularly interested. There is one thing however very certain; if events do turn out in that way; wherever I may go, & in whatever I may engage, I shall always keep you very near to me. But I will not endeav-er not to anticipate any thing further, of a gloomy character; it is bad enough any how; without the trouble of anticipating. I have just heard of Jim Blackmon’s death; very bad is it not? It was very unexpected also, for the last news received from him was that he would probably, by this time, have been exchanged. In fact I was fully expecting to hear of his being at home, instead of his death. I will close now, Little Honey, until to-morrow. I have been a little sick for a day or two; a very bad cold, discrelined system &c, which makes me feel more gloomy than I would otherwise be; by to-morrow however I hope to be not only in better health, but better spirits.

April 30th 1865

Little Darling –
There is nothing more in the way of news today than there was yesterday; Some runners, but no reliance placed in them. One is that President Andy Johnson & Stanton, the Federal Sec’y of War, have been assassinated; another, that Genl Joe. Johnston has whipped Sherman, being good, both of them, if true. If the game of killing the U.S. Presidents is properly kept up, it will soon be so that no one will accept the position; that will probably produce so much confusion, and in fact, anarchy, it will interfere very much with their proper administration of affairs, and therefore give us a much better chance in this war. As a general thing, I am very much opposed to assassination, but when it comes to killing such men as Lincoln, Johnson, Seward &c, men who have been the cause of slaughtering thousands of our best people, and who have made desolate thousands of homes in the Confederacy, I approve it very highly; for they deserve death richly, and as they do not expose themselves to any of the dangers of battle, &c, which they im-pose upon others, I think it a very proper plan to kill them in any manner whatsoever in which it can be accomplished.

I am not getting along quite as well as usual; I have been about half sick for two or three days, & don’t appear to be getting over it. I can sympathize with you as to the cough you complain of; for I do considerable coughing myself. I think though, that in a day or two I will be entirely well. I have a piece of calico to make me a shirt, which I will send to you by the first practicable opportunity. Say to Bobolinks that I received her letter, and will write her one in a very few days. Isn’t it a delightful childs letter, Little Honey; just exactly the way she talks. Kiss the children for me Little Darling and, please mam, try to take good care of yourself. Write frequently. [illegible]

[Transcription by: Rodney Peacock]

Source

Pearce Museum at Navarro College via The Portal to Texas History

Rights

This item is in the public domain.

Tags

• transcribed

• man

• celebration/rejoicing

• denunciation: Lincoln

• first reaction

• future speculation

Cite this Item

L.D. Bradley. "Letter from L.D. Bradley to Minnie Bradley ". Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1119

Item Type

Letter

Creator

L.D. Bradley

Date

April 29, 1865

Dimensions

[4] p. ; 27 cm

Region

Confederate states