Dear Nancy I take my pen to inform you
that I am well at this time hopeing these lines find
you enjoying the Same blessings / I have looked for a
letter from you but have not recd any yet / I am
afraid you are not Doing well that you are worse off
than I left you / I want you to write to me as Soone
as you get this and tell me whether you have got well
or not and how my little boy is / Nan I am Doing as
well as I can exspect but believe me when I Say that
you and little Thomas is on my mind all the time / I
want to See you worse than I ever did in my life /
Nancy I hav Sent a Sack of flour to union mills in
care of S.I.Sutton / if you hav not heard from it
Send ____?____ up ther and get it / tell william that
Father has promised to Buy me Some cotton rope an
_____?_____ when he goes up that way / he can bring
it home and write to me how the bissness is getting
on and whether the cotton is likely to Do well yet or
not / Nancy I must Say a little more to you yet /
Nancy if I was clear of this bissness I would Stay
with you as long as I could / be careful with my
little boy / take good care of him and make a good
boy of him / if it is in your power for god will be
with bothe of you although I am far away and when you
have lost all hopes of me he is Still with you if you
will be with him Nancy you can Do nothing for me but
Pray for me / Pray that god may bless me with the
Sight to See that and to see that kindness that you
have always treated me with / Prey that we may be
restored to our former positions and Nancy if any
Body insults you Dont make any fuss about it unless
you know you are in the rite cause and then trust
them with me and if I come home and ever finds you
there I Shall look upon you as I always Did and Shall
Do all in my mind to provide for you as I hav Done
heretofore / Nan if you need anything that you cant
get write to me and if I can get it you Shall hav it
and So I must now come to a close / I remain your
kind husband until Death
Fort Lane Craven
County N C November 25th 1861
Dar Nancy I take my pen to drop you a few lines to
let you know that I am yet in the land of the living
but Nancy I am not well / I have been under the care
of the doctor a weeke last Sunday and hav been as
Sick the most of the time as you ever saw me in your
life but I am well enough to write a little at this
time / you must know that I am in a fine way of
mending / Nancy I dont want you to think hard of me
for not writing to you about it before for I knew
that you was Sick and I thought it best not to Say
any thing to you about it / I Could a got Some of the
boys to a wrote to you but did not on that account /
thank the Lord I am mending as fast as I can / I recd
your letter last weeke / I dont know exactly what day
as I was very Sick at that time / I want you to take
good care of my little Boys / when you write to me
again tell me how little Tomy acted after he left me
at Ivy Suttons that evening / poore little fellow I
never Saw any little thing Seeme to be hurt any worse
than he was when I told him goodby / he beged me to
come and go with him / Nancy I tell you I never had
any thing to hurt me much worse / Nancy you may name
your little boy what you want to if you are a mind to
/ it will Suit me as well as any thing you Could name
it / Nancy I must come to a close as I hav got but
very little time before the male leave here / So good
by Dear Wife I Shall endeavor to remain your Dear
Husband Henry Sutton
Thomas was his son, and obviously was not very happy
about Daddy leaving.
Craven County N.C.
March 11th 1862
Dear Wife
I Seat myself to Drop you a few lines to let you know
that I am well hopeing them to find you enjoying tihe
Same blessings / tell thomas that I am well and want
to see him the worst in the world tell him that dont
know when I Shall come home to See him tell little
william Henry that I wants to See him also and hear
him cry Some tell him he must Stop So much of it
tell william Cotton he had better administer on old
Claudes estate tell him he can take one of the girls
for pay tell him he had better not take her for only
During the war tell him it dont pay to take one
for life now and if he Dont want her hisself to Send
her Down here for me She would be exceptable here /
Nancy you Seem to be uneasy about that money / I beg
your Pardon Nancy I did not put the money in that
letter but I will put it in this certain Sixteen
Dollars you may let Mr Kilpartrick hav cotton for all
that I owe him / I think it has drawed interest /
Must devilish fast pay him all I owe him / any way
cotton or or no cotton / take up his acct / we are
expecting another draw this weeke and if we Do get it
I Shall Send it to you also and you must pay it to
Worry L Kilpartrick as fast as you get it only Save
enough for your own use and william if he wants any
let him have it / Nancy we are expecting a fight here
every Day / the yankees is in the mouth of the river
and they have captured two vessels last week and took
900 bbls of corn and Some guns that our men was
carrying from washington / they may lie there / the
longer they lie there the longer they are Safe / I
assure them when they undertake to come here they are
bit bad / we dont intend leaving camp gatlin in the
hands of no Such heshions(Hessians) / we are on our
own soil and we will defend it to the last / god will
be with us as he has been heretofore I pray / and
when he is with us no man needed to be against us for
he alone can kill or he can cure and when the
heshions Starts here I advise them to Make peace with
god before they Start for we are here and when they
get in Sight they will find us ready for them / Nancy
I have come to the conclusion that I Shall never have
to come victim to the heshions that we have now got
to contend with / be it gods will I know I never
Shall / Nancy I Dont know when I Shall come to see
you all / I would come tomorrow if I Could / Some Say
we Shall get Discharged the fifteenth of April others
Say we will not and So I Dont know when myself /
Nancy I hav lost all of my Socks only the paire that
is on my feete /
they have stold them from me if you can get the
chance Send me one pair Do So / dont Send but one
pair / no more only I remain as ever your true and
devoted husband
Henry Sutton
"This next letter is from Henry to his father ,
Benjamin Sutton."
Camp Gatlin N. C.
March 12th 1862
Dear Father I Seat myself to drop you a few lines to
let you know that I am well at this time with the
exception of a cold and a caghf(cough) / hoping this
may find you and family all enjoying the Same
blessings / I want you to write to me as soon as you
get this / I beg to be excused for not writing to you
Sooner / Father you know we are all negectful about
writing to each other / well it is So that we can
hear from one another verry often with out writing So
often / I Dont know as there is any thing new that I
can write to you about at this time only I think they
are all Scared as bad down here as any Set of people
I have ever Seene /
I understood that the yankees captured two of our
vessels last week Down in the mouth of the neuse
river / one of them from hyde county loaded with corn
the other from washington loaded with guns / whether
it is so or not I dont no / we are looking for an
attack here every day or at least the town fellows is
/ I Dont think we shall ever hav any fight here / any
way if the yankees think it adviseable to Start here
let them rip we are ready for them any day / we can
upset their calculations for them / we are too well
Situated to give up our quarters / if they wanted to
ever come here they had better Started Sooner / its
too late now / we will atend to this place without
any yankees / we hav no use for them if they will
Stay in their own quarters they will Do well / father
remember my love to all Daniel Chloey and Thomas John
Ivey and all there familys / Tell them to excuse me
for not writing to them and that they must write to
me as soon as they can as I am glad to hear from you
all at any time / John and Alex is all well and Doing
well / they also requested me to give their love to
all / I Dont know as I have any thing more to write
at this time / excuse me for not filling up the
letter and I will close by remaining as ever until
Death your Son Henry Sutton
Father come Down to See us if you can and tell all
the rest of the family to come
"The previous two letters were written two and three
days respectfully before Union General Burnside
landed his troops in New Bern, located in Craven
County. (See the
27th at Sharpsburg
)
Camp South west
Lenoir County N. C. April 4th '62
Dear Nancy
I Seat myself once more to inform you that I am yet
in the land of the living though am well / Nancy I
would be verry glad to See you or hear from you and
the children and also the Family in general / I hav
wrote to you once before and hav not heard from you
though / I hav moved Since then / our camp ground at
this time is the meeting house grove / a pleasant
place it is / we have preeching occasionaly /
Alexander is verry poorly / John is well so far as i
know / I have not heard from him Since I Saw you only
I heard yesterday that they had halled(hauled) the
cotton out and made Manure of it / that is verry hard
though better than to let the infernal black mouth
Slack jawed rogueish ungodly unthankful yankees have
it / I had rather be a slave the remainder of my days
than to let them have one pound of my cotton or any
thing that a true Southern man has worked for and
when they make another attempt I pray to god that we
may give them the worst licking they ever hav had in
their plundering lives / if ever I Die without
killing Some of them I Shall Die dissatisfied / I
suppose they are over about Trenton running our good
citizens away from their own homes and telling them
that it is their Soil and it is ashame to the world
our good women and Children must leave their homes
and run to Some Distant place for Safety / our farms
and Stock our furniture and every thing looted by a
set of lite spirited Scamps that never studied any
thing but to learn how to make Dollbaby and toys to
Send here to cheat us out of our hard honorable labor
that Nature has So perfectly learnt to us and then
abuse our Smart commanders Such as never will be born
in the yankee land / Nancy I will come to a close /
give my love to all / I remain as ever your
affectioate husband
Henry Sutton
Lanes Chapel Craven County
April 11th 1862
Dear Nancy
I Seat myself once more to Drop you a few lines to
let you know that I am yet in the land of the living
though I am not verry well / my eyes is verry Sore /
Nancy I hav run the blockade / I got home yesterday
and is home now but I Shall go back to camp to Day /
Wm is well and Seems to be verry well Satisfied / he
is getting on verry well and when my time is out I
Shall come to See you if I can bring you home agin /
I tell you it Did not look right when I got here
yesterday to See nobody but Wm and the negros / they
have throwed the cotton out in the field for Manure
burnt the turpentine and god only knows what will be
done after a little mor I dont / we can only put
our trust in god and prey that he will have mercy on
us and he will with his great power restore to us
again our freedom / Nancy I want you to keep a Sharp
look out for old merry Mack / he will leave here this
morning on his way to See some of the girls in that
neighborhood / no more only give my love to John
Parks and all the family also to Father Daniel and
Thomas and Cousin John Ivey / Direct your letters to
Kinston / I hav not recd narry one from you yet / I
will Close by remaining your Friend
Henry Sutton
Kinston N.C. May 8th 1862
Dear Nancy I Seat myself to Drop you a few lines to
let you know that I am not verry well at this time although I
keep trying to go / yet hopeing thid to find you and
the children all well and also the whole family /
Nancy we have moved now to Kinston / god only knows
where we Shall be three days from now to Richmond
as apt as any where but let me go where I may /
yankee blood or idependance is all that I crave at
this time laying aside all other hopes until that is
finished / I am willing to submit to anything that
our gallant commanders will lay before me / if I am
Slaughtered in the Struggle I believe that our cause
is Just therefore Gods will be Done is my honest and
humble prayer forever / Nancy take good care of my
Poore little Children / make them be good to other
Children and behave well to grown people / Nncy
always endeavor to do this / for Gods Sake if I never
See them again learn them never to tell a lie / tell
Thomas that it is a sin and try to learn him what is
the meaning of Sin / Nancy give my love to all /
write everytime you get the chance / so no more but
remaining your Dear Husband
Henry Sutton
Kinston Lenoir County
May 23d 1862
Dear Nancy
I Seat myself to write you a few lines to inform you
that I am well at this time hopeing them to find you
and family enjoying the Same blessings / I recd your
kind letter you Sent by John and was verry glad to
hear that you was all well and that you had good luck
in getting home / I met with Some difficlty in
getting to camp though I got here Safe at last and
all was right with old George (Whitfield) / you no he
is as good a Capt. as ever was commishiond in the
Southern confederacy / he will Do his part if the
privates will Do theirs / we are here yet and in good
Spirit yet though times is verry hard / Nancy give my
love to all / I must tell you what a nice treat I got
yesterday / old uncle Poke was Down here yesterday
/he gave me a nice Cake and an apple jack / I tell
you it was nice enough for me / tell all the
neighbors howdy and give my love to all and ever prey
that you and me may live together in peace again at
our house / Nancy take good care of my little Boys /
make good Children of them if I never See them again
/ So I will Close by remaining your Dear husband
until Death
Henry Sutton
Tell John Parks and Thomas and Daniel Cousin John
Ivey and Father and every Body to come See us / I
would be glad to See Some of them every day and tell
them that if they cant come to See me to wright to me
as often as they can / paper costs are rite high but
money is plentiful and not much value
Richmond Va
June 4th 1862
Dear wife
I Seat myself to Drop you a few lines to let you know
that I am yet in the land of the living though I am not
verry well at this time / we have been exposed a
great deal /
I have been wet every Since I left Kinston and every
thing that we have got is wet though I hope we Shall
fair better after this / I can Say to you that we hav not been in any fight yet but we are expecting to be
ordered in to a line of battle every minute / there
was no fighting yesterday as I have heard of nor none
to day / there was
hot times about five miles below Richmond last
Saturday and Sunday but our boys was
too hot for the yankees everytime / we captured
Several pieces of artillery and a large number of
___?___ Such as we hav to fight in the place of
yankees Several Small arms and all their bagage and
provisons and medical Stores together with Several
other things to ___?___ to mention
/I tell you the North Carolina boys has got their
manes up and if any regiment gets in to a fight now
ours will for our colonel is a blooded Snag / I tell
you he kept us Stedily moving from the time we left
Kinston until we got to the battlefield / Nancy I
want you to content yourself the best you can and you
can only live in hope and prey for better times to
come / rest assure that I Shall come home as Soon as
I can / Nancy give my love to all bless my little
children / I prey take good care of them / Nancy it
is our Disobedience to god that has brought our
troubles on and or obedience will relieve us / I
Dreamed a bad Dream about little Thomas last Sunday
night which has made me uneasy every Since / Nancy
write to me as son as you get this and tell all to
write to me as I never can See any pleasure So great
as the moments are when I am reading respectful
letters from some of my people / Direct your letter
to Henry Sutton Richmond Va Co C 27 N C Reg in care
of Colonel John R Cook
hopeing this to find you
all well I come to a close by remaining as ever your
Dear Husband Henry Sutton"the
hot times Henry was talking about was the Battle of
Seven Pines."
Chester County Va
June 13 1862
Dear Wife
I Seat myself to write you a few lines to let you
know I am yet in the land of the living / thanks to
the kind Providence for its blessings / Nancy I can
Say to you that we hav not been in any fight yet
though we are expecting to be called out every minute
as we can hear heavy canonadeing nearly every Day
about eight or ten miles off in the Direction of the
Chickihominy River / we Suppose it to be of our
troops Shelling the enemy to prevent them from
building briges So that their forces can cross /their
is Skirmishing around there every Day and our
Southern boys never fail to carry the day / the enemy
Says that it is no use to them to carry a baterry of
artillery in the field / they Say the
Rebels is as eager after a field piece as hounds
after a hare / they Seem to think the best way they
can fix to whip us by telling willful lies / they
report a great victory on
Saturday and Sunday the 31th day May and the 1th day
of June
/well I can tell you how they gained it / they opened
fire on our boys and Stood up verry well until our
heroes proposed locking bayonets with them when they
Squandered worse than Sheepe until they got waist
Deepe in Chickihominy Swamp / then as you know it is
useless to try to ketch a mink in the mud and our
boys not feeling Disposed to wet their feete after
the lying reches (wretches) they
Stood on the outside and Shot them until the last one
of them had gon out of sight / they fell back to
their camp in good order and is now holding the field
where the yankees was allowed to burry their dead
under a flag of truse / the yankees Say that our
trops had fell back from Richmon two or three weeks
ago / that is the most lie they hav ever told yet and
I think when they get to Richmon it will be like Some
of them has already confessed that had got there a
few days too soon / well they may get there but they
hav the chance to show their Spunk on the way / I
must tell you how the Ladies of Petersburg and
Richmon treated us when they Saw us passing throgh
the citties / well they wave the beautiful
confederate flags at us and one of them waved a black
one / I tell you our boys give more cherres for that
on than any other that they had Seene / Nancy I hav
not recd any letter from you Since I Saw you and cant
hear from you / I want you to write to me as soon as
you get this as I want to hear from you verry bad /
Direct your letter to Chester Post Office Va / we hav
moved eleven miles from Richmon / Just half way from
there to Petersburge / Nancy I am not verry well at
this timenor hav not been Since I left N C though I
keepes Doing my bisness and hopeing that I Shall get
well Soon / Nancy Dont neglect to write to me as Soon
as you get this / I want to hear from you all worse
than I ever Did in my life / My little children
though Dear to me as they are I Should be better
Satisfied if I never had had them about me god bless
their little Souls / take good care of the / if you
can learn them never to tell A lie as it is the worst
of all habits / tell little Thomas that if he will be
a good boy that I will bring him the prettiest thing
when I come home that he has ever Seene / hopeing
this to find you all well I come to a close by
remaining as ever your Dear Husband
Henry Sutton
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