|
South Carolina C.S.A.
|
|
till the last yankey leaves South Carolina Soil...
|
|
South Carolina C.S.A. |
|
Locust Hill Baptist Cemetery Company A Palmetto Light Artillery Battalion |
|
E-Mail Donor of Letter For more about the Poole family. |
|
Charleston Dec 25, 1861 Dear Mary it being Chrismas Day I take the opertunity of writing you a few lines to let you know that I am still in the land of the living. I have nothing Strange to write to you allthough I see something new every Day if I was to under take to write you all the Strange things I see it would take me a week . we are still at Battery. No one I expect we will stay here till the last yankey leaves South Carolina Soil. I don’t apprehend any Danger here allthough the yankees is in twenty miles of us & making great threats. if they come through the wapoo Cut we will take them down like wheat before the sythe. I went last Sunday to see the Greenville Regt & saw several of my friends & accuaintences I saw Tom Newby & John Boling they was well. I herd that Perry Newby had got home & I was verry proud to hear it. I want you to tell him to write to me soon as I would like to hear from him. Mary it is a dry Christmas here not a drop to Drink but plenty of beef thirty years old to eat. I stand it tolerble well my teeth is failing very fast but I can have a new set _ut in when these wears out [ paper torn out] well Drilled & don’t have much [paper torn out here]ly guard Duty. we get agreat Deal of news here we get a Charleston paper every morning by paying five cts. I would send it to you if it wasn’t for the postage. I will tell you something about the great fire in Charleston. we heard the alarm bells begin to ring about 8 ½ oclock at night & soon saw the flames begin to rise we was about a mile & half from it & could see the flames reach from one house to the top of another it was the greatest sight I ever saw. Mary I want you to be vary saving of everything you have to eat & don’t waste nor lend anything for it is going to be hard times. I will Draw about thirty Dollars next week & if you kneed any I will send it to you for I have no use for it here as big a drunkard as Eliza makes out I am. S.H. Poole myself & W.S. Bull has all had verry bad colds. I was on the sick list one week but up & agoing again. There was thirty six on at the same time in our Company with mumps & measels. I have not taken the mumps yet give my love to all the Children. tell Pierce & Steve to be good boys that I Dream about them every night. I will be with them some Day to learn them how to work. I want you to write to me how little Berry Furman is getting along. I shall write no more til I get an answer. your Affectio[paper torn here] husband As Ever [paper torn here] R. Poole To Mary [part of letter "P" possibly, then torn area] |
|
Pierce and Steve are both sons of Demarcus Poole.
The grave of D.R. Poole, Locust Hill Baptist Church This letter mentions a good many things of note, the writer while a member of the P.B.L.A. mentions his visit to the Sixteenth South Carolina and seeing members of Company G. These are the boys of Travelers Rest, Hellams Crossroads, and Slater. John Boling (A Confederate Odyssey) would become a Captain and would hold nominal command of the Sixteenth Regiment. Captain Boling would have great impact on the history of Upper Greenville County. His home, while falling down, still stands, his wife and Demarcus Poole's wife were Newby's. He is buried at Ebenezer Church. The Newby boys, Tom and Perry, would return home. Perry at the time of this letter and Tom would resign his position as Lt. in 1862. Tom is listed as also having served in Hamilton's Company of the Provost Guard in Columbia, S.C. S.H. Poole is shown as having served in the 3rd Res., Company F, as a First Lt. W.S. Bull served in Company A and Company H, Palmetto Battalion Light Artillery. The 16th is still called the Greenville Regiment at this early date and the great fire in Charleston was but a herald of fires and destruction to come. Hope was high; a new nation had been founded on dreams and love of country. The greatest killer of all was a foot, country boys who had lived alone were gathered together in great masses and mumps, typhoid, and measles would kill more men than "yankey" bullets ever thought about. The dark messengers were on the horizon... but that is all, "as through a glass darkly..." a distant future that with luck and courage can be avoided. Indeed, the author is prophetic, in his remark that "hard times are ahead..." but again, that is tomorrow. For this Christmas day, there is only the wonder of new worlds and new visions. A million strange and exotic things to be seen. At this time, all these things are still bright and unbroken, but the clouds are gathering, and the gale is coming, and when it is passed the land will never be the same again. In his letter DeMarcus mentions S.H. Poole. This is his brother Stephen Hamilton Poole, 1st Lt. 3rd SC Reserves. His other brothers Seth Milton, Andrew Berry, and Benjamin Franklin Poole all served in Co. F, 4th SC Infantry. DeMarcus' brother in law (my 3rd great grandpa) Thomas Jefferson Chiles (Childs) served in Co. H, 3rd SC Lt. Arty. and in the 3rd SC Reserves. These were all Greenville County boys and very patriotic. Ronnie Bagwell |
|
|
|