Varmint Hunters Forum banner

Grandma's letter- 1865

952 Views 13 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  RickB
Thought I'd share a letter my GGReat Grand Mother wrote to her mother, dated 1865. Her husband, who was from Baltimore, was a surgeon in the Union Army....until the Union Army burnt their plantation to the ground. They moved to Texas where he joined the Confederate Army, the Texas Long Rifles at San Antonio. He was a surgeon with them and was at the Battle of Glorietta Pass, New Mexico. She went along as an ambulance driver. Their travels across Texas and other places is real interesting. They went thru Indian attacks, floods, watched as men froze to death at their post, and could not get enough food for all of the troops. It's a saga of what it was like back in the day. There's an additional letter at the end of this. After the war, he borrowed money to open a drug store in San Antonio. The Union Army came thru, took everything he had and handed him worthless script. He spent the rest of his life as a doctor paying off the loan for the drugs. Ironically I guess, he died on a stage coach between San Antonio and Calaveras Texas where he lived on borrowed land. He died of a heart attack. Hope you find it interesting:
https://falcon.tamucc.edu/wiki/TOGS/JenniferSnyder
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
It's cool that you have that history. Thanks for sharing.


Molon Labe

Kim
Thank you for sharing. Very interesting.
That letter gives an insight to how it was in those times. Thank you for sharing with us.
Most interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
I loved it...Thanks for the post!


Steven
Very interesting

I really enjoyed reading this. That lady was pioneer for sure.
Priceless

A priceless piece of history. Thanks for sharing.
Happy you could enjoy the read. I find it amazing that she could pack everything she owned in 5 minutes time in a wagon. She had nothing but was happy. A piece of paper cost her 5 bucks. The actual terminology of her writing is also interesting. I can't imagine driving an ambulance in fridged cold where men are freezing to death at their posts and watch your children go to bed hungry. To say the woman was tough would be a gross understatement.
On the otherside of my Grandmothers family, her other grandfather was with the Louisiana 8th Confederate Army, Company H, The Cheneyville Rifles of Rapides Parish. We don't have a lot on him, yet. We are blessed to have a picture of the family at their shack they called home.
I would like to see some of those slimy little female mall rats with the piercings all over their face subjected to something like this.
One couldn't proclaim that era of time
to be the good ole days. Makes you wonder
how people even survived mother nature
much less the savagery of the human element.

Thanks for sharing. LDS
Thanks for sharing with us.

Best.
Wow, That is History that they Don't teach in school

We only have my Family history in Family Bible. And that is their names date of birth and death. I only know of my Mom's family from what I was told by her. She talked of the Depression and her Mom calling President Hoover, as Beany Hoover. As for long stretches, all they had to eat was Beans. But that was not even on the scale as to what your G-Grand Mother had to endure. My Dad's family is a mystery to me. We have a diary that he kept , after he finished a mission, as a waist gunner on a B 17. My wife has transcribed most of it. She has found WW2 Maps and even a picture of one of the planes he flew in. After 52 missions, and him talking a little, I will put in foot notes he told me, with some of his missions. Maybe that way some one in the future will at least have some history of this family.

Thank You Very Much for letting me read this and I will say a prayer for her as I know she has her family beside her in Heaven.

Rick B.
See less See more
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top