Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

“In view of the danger before me, it is indeed gratifying to feel that I have the good-will of those I leave behind..,”–Letters from Elisha Franklin Paxton.

June 5, 2011

Elisha Franklin Paxton – Letters from camp and field while an officer in the Confederate Army,The American Civil War

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Harper’s Ferry, June 5, 1861.

I received your sweet letter of the 1st inst. on yesterday, and the return of Mr. McClure gives me the opportunity of sending you a line in return for it. When McClure came here to see his son, a member of our company, I offered him my hand, which he took, and thus I have made friends with the only man on earth with whom I was not on speaking terms. I bade a cordial good-bye to Wilson when I left home, which I think he returned in the same spirit of good-will. I now may say that there is no one on earth for whom I entertain anything but feelings of kindness, and I think I have the ill will of no one. In view of the danger before me, it is indeed gratifying to feel that I have the good-will of those I leave behind, and that I leave no one who has received a wrong from me which I have not regretted and which is not forgiven. If Mr. McClure calls on you, for my sake treat him with the utmost kindness. Send me the miniature. Good-bye, dearest.

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