Confederate letter provides insight to my family history

(The following is a letter written by my great, great, great grandfather Private James M. Nihiser, a Confederate soldier, to his wife Ellen G. Nihiser, on July 24, 1861, which was a few days after the first battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. Nihiser served in the 27th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, also known as the “Stonewall” Brigade, commanded by Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. He was in Company F, known as the Greenbrier Sharpshooters.  According to war records, Nihiser died at a hospital in Gordonsville, Va., July 1, 1862.)

Manassas Junction

Dear Wife,

I embrace this opportunity of letting you know that I am still upon the land of the living and in moderate health, and God grant that these lines may find you and the children and mother well.

I sent a letter to you last week telling you of the fight that we had at Camp Stephens and also said that we was stationed at Winchester, but since that time the enemy attacked Manassas Junction and we was ordered to go there and on last Sunday we had the greatest battle that ever was fought in America before but we whipped them, Ellen. I never expected to see you again. The balls was falling around me like hail and I don’t see how I ever did escape for the men was falling around me like cornstalks and still I was not touched, but it is likely that if ever I get in another fight that I may get killed, but if I do there will be someone left to tell my tale.

So, you must do the best you can. I may get to come home before long if you have not got any better. I intend to try and get a furlough to go home a while if I can. If I can’t come home you must try and get some brandy and alloes and try and cure yourself, for I spend a great deal of uneasiness about you, but I hope that you are satisfied better. I want you to be in good spirits and in good health. Don’t be dissatisfied with staying in the mountains for I think that you are in the safest place in the world. I would freely stay in the mountains 10 years if I could get away from here and never say a word for I would rather stay in the mountains a year with you as to stay here one month, but be it so we must try and put up with our situation for I hope it will be all for the better for it is my happy lot to ever get home, home will be sweeter to me than ever it was before.

I want you to write to me just as often as ever you can for you don’t know how much good it does me to hear from you, and let me know who does for you. I asked you to write that to me before but you never said a word about who found you in meal and coffee, etc., and I want you to let me know whether Perry Martin has furnished you anything for if he has not I want you to make him give to you for you are as needy as any person else, and let me know what old Col. Sam has done for you. Let me know whether you have sold the calves or not, and tell me how the cows and horses is a doing, and let me know whether Albert Williams has gone to war or not. You said in the letter that I got last week that you was left by yourself in the mountains. Write the general news of the Meadows. I will send you some money as soon as I get some, and I expect to get some before long.

I send this letter by old Mr. Schilling and I am a going to send you a nice chart that I took from the Yankees.

I will quit now by saying nothing more, only don’t forget to kiss the children for me. Give my best love to mother and Frances and receive a goodly portion to yourself. So farewell, dear wife, for I still remain your ever beloved husband until death.

(James and Ellen had a daughter, Sara Jane Nihiser. She married Wilson Richardson and they had a daughter Fonda Maude Richardson. She married Isaac Randolph Hawkins and they had a son, Owen Ashley Hawkins. He married Ethel Grace Flint and they had a daughter, Myrna Lou Hawkins. She married Jack Franklin Roberts, and they are my parents.)