Augusta County: L. Luckett to Alexander H. H.
Stuart, September 2, 1861
Summary:
Luckett describes the "long tedious" trip back to Louisiana from Virginia. He
reports his crops are in good condition, and describes war prepartions for the
coming conflict of "Saxon against Norman, the Puritan & Cavalier."
Sep 2nd, 1861
Ashbourne La
My dear Sir,
We had a very agreeable ride to Richmond, and made a stay in that City till Saturday morning, when we started South. We were very much indebted to Cap. Baldwin, for making our time as pleasant in Richmond as it was thro his politeness & attention, we were able to see the manufacture of war instruments, from the percussion cap & minie ball, up to the Dalgreen gun & rifled Cannon. Ellen had a very pressing invitation to spend her time in the country a few miles down Jame's River, and I was very near availing myself of it & pay a visit to Manassas on Saturday, which would have [unclear: enabled] me to see the great fight of the 21st. But having no suspicion that another battle would have followed so soon the one of the 18th, & not having heard from Home and the cotton gathering season with in a few days, I unfortunately left on Saturday morning.
We had a long tedious trip to orleans -- so much
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detention from long
trains of Cars loaded with Soldiers, that we were detained in Bristol all day on
Sunday, and [unclear: delayed] another day in Loudon from a wash in the
road caused by the horrid rains I had seen fall for some time. The Battle of
Manassas had preceded us of course, and the war fever was raging along the road
in N. Orleans and at Home, with ten fold more violence than when I left.
I found a Boat in Orleans ready for the mouth of the Red River, from which plain
we took steps for Alexandria, and reached home within two hours of three weeks
from the time I left. I found the crops of corn & cotton any thing we
would desire--the first enough to bread us for two years in a pinch &
the latter promising an abundant yield. But for the last two weeks we have a
[unclear: suspicion] of rain that rarely falls in our
Summers--bringing in their [illeg.] too, two of the most destructive
pests that the Crop is subject to--Boll worm & Cotton
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[unclear: pitter]. Several of my neighbors are now complaining that
their crops are half eaten up. I see very few in mine yet. We have also had
Typhoid Fever all around us, but have escaped yet, th'o Robert thinks we had two cases among the servants while I was
about. We have had & are now having a great deal of little
[unclear: fever] among our field hands, only lasting two or three
days, but interferes very much with our Cotton picking. One planter on Bayou
Bocuffe had forty to come in on one day.
The War Spirit is not abating, but burns as brightly as ever, Companies are
mustering or passing down [unclear: every week]--With a voting
population of about 1400 our Parish has sent of eight
companies & now raising a Battalion of Horse. Our Wives &
Daughters are busily engaged in Knitting socks & making flannel under
clothing for the army in Virginia--all the latter article has been exhausted in
our Town & we had to send to orleans for a supply, and the sewing
mach
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ine & the busy fingers are going from morning till
night. I believe our women have more Patriotism than our men, and the latter
would flag sometimes but for the former--not for love of Country, but for want
of energy--but the Ladies give them no [unclear: rest], it is go ahead
with [unclear: things] here [unclear: & forever]. This
war with all its ills of losses & suffering & blood is better
for us than wd. have been peaceful separation.
There are many here on our confines, many in Texas & many of our French
Creoles, who never go from home, & have heard perhaps of Virginia
Maryland & N Carolina, but know no more about
them & care as little as for Canada or Cuba--This war will bring them
all in contact--Bull Run & Manassas-Richmond & Winchester--Blue
Ridge & Arlington Heights--the by paths & crossroads will be
familiar as their own Prairies & Canebrakes--they will fight too side by
side & eat together & lie down together--& many will
become familiar & go down to their childrens children, where they fight
their battles or [unclear: gain] by the fireside-- [unclear: Who has brot
out too] the character of the [unclear: Raw] from whom
we
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have separated a People who for generations, for love of money
& gain, had [unclear: concealed] a perfidy, hypocrisy and
bloodthirstyness unequaled in the history of civilization. I doubt whether races
ever change their organic nature--the Catacombs of Egypt have revealed the fact
that the negro is the same formation to day that he had
three thousand years ago, and the Yankee is the same now that he was in the time
of Cromwell, hypocritical, [unclear: agrarian] and hating of other [deleted: ]--It is the same now that it was more than two hundred years
ago--the Saxon against the Norman, the Puritan & Cavalier, and at this
time Mason & Dixons line divids two Races as different, as the Irish
& the English, the Gaul & the German.
As well might the Indian & the White man live together as equals as the
Southern & the Yankee.
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The Huguenot is the same now he was in
the time of Henry the 4th brave, faithful & religious & the
Cavalier the same bold, [unclear: unchanaged], high toned gentleman, as
when he fought & gave his life for Charles the 1st.
I wish the separation had been in an earlier day of my life--I wd. like to live to see the South have a fair & untrammeled start in the race of Peoples, for I think She is destined to be as far superior to all others as the [unclear: Caucasian] was to the Mongol & others.
With a climate comprising nearly all the degrees of the temperate zone, from the
region of the apple to the orange; from that of the hemp to the wheat, to the
cotton & sugar, with mountains containing all of the minerals of the
world, to the plains covered with cattle in countless herds, with an excess of
surplus of Cotton Sugar & Tobacco alone of 300000000 and a people as
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brave & chivalrous as the Romans in the height of fame, why
should we not be the greatest people in the world?
Could there be a more significant sign & more illustrative of the two races, than the horrors of the present Northern cabinet--Abraham, Simon, Gideon, Solomon, Caleb, and Hannibal--five parts Puritan & one Affrican. I hope our patriotic women may be able to clothe our whole army with woolens for the winter--it would be an honor that no other nation [unclear: can] attend to. The South can loan to the Government 100 [unclear: millions] of cotton, the half of the Crop, without any inconvenience to them, and do this as long as the war lasts, & make the interest by a direct tax with out a murmur.
Our Thunderbolt is expected to leave
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Orleans
this night, & is to receive the [unclear: fire] from the
[unclear: forty-1st]
[unclear: Mississippi] & [illeg.] as the
[unclear: proper] down to try [unclear: her] strength &
capacity of resistance. She is entirely ironclad with a proboscis of iron, and a
Cannon of 120 lbs ball, to fire when she [unclear: strikes].
We shall be hard up here for coffee & bacon by christmas, if the ports are not opened before that. Texas with her beeves can supply the meat, but the want of coffee will be a great trial to the patriotism of the Girls--They can dispense with everything but rice, coffee & chickens.
Henry with the whole family is very anxious that you would let Sandy come out in the fall spend the winter with us, we have an admirable Teacher & he would get the advantage of early rising as he has Scholars up by candle light in the winter. Mrs. L. & the Girls [unclear: desire] [unclear: to be most affect], remembered to you all.
Very [illeg.] & truly
L Luckett
