These two letters are written by John Buchanan. He was the minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Cane Hill from 1844 until 1861 when the hostility of what was to become the Civil War took place.
Letter No. 1
Mr. D.C. Williams Boonsboro Ark
March 19th 1861
My Dear Friend,
As part of the business on which I write is rather of a private nature, I address you personally instead of the firm. Last Saturday I sent Mr. J.B. Russell $25 to be forward to your house by first chance if no opportunity offers sooner. Rev. Mr. Morrow will go down to Dripping Springs next Friday and will take it down.
I rec'd information yesterday that coffee was worth 18cts in New Orleans. If so, and you have any on hand bought at lower figures, I would be glad to have you save me 50 pounds or if you would prefer I should take a cwt. I can easily divide it among my neighbors. We ill pay promptly your selling price.
The enclosed paper please hand to Messers Ward or Southmayd. Tell them to get their good wives to collect all they can for the monument from Miss Sawyer's pupils. Pay it over to your house to be placed to my cr. Send me the name and amount of each donor and I will forward names and pay money immediately to Mrs. L. Foster Smith.
I now want to write you a little on politicks. Alf Wilson and W.D. Reagan are speaking at every place where they can get a hearing. They evidently look forward to the time when the decision of the convention will be referred to the people and they want get as any turned over to secession as possible. I hear they are also activated by personal hatred to Judge Walker as they hold him before the publick as a demagogue.
As you are in constant correspondence with your delegation in the convention, would it not be best to suggest to them so set the time for the vote of the people on their action as far ahead as possible, that the Union members of the convention may get home and exert an influence for the Union, if circumstances justify us at present, our continuance in the Union. I feel that time is worth more than money, in settling our difficulties. Think of it, and act in the matter suggested as you may deem best.
Your sincere friend, John Buchanan
*This letter a bit of little known history--namely, that a campaign was conducted to raise funds for a monument to Miss Sophia Sawyer, founder of the Fayetteville Female Seminary. Chairman of the fund-raising committee was Mrs. Lucretia Foster Smith, who succeeded Miss Sawyer as principal of the Seminary. The monument for which these contributions paid is still standing in Fayetteville's Evergreen Cemetery, where Miss Sawyer's body was reinterred after removal from the Seminary grounds on West Mountain Street. The inscription on the tombstone includes these words: "Erected by her pupils."
The reference in the letter to Alf Wilson and W.D. Reagan shows the intensity of feeling in March 1861 between the proponents of immediate secession and the conservatives (Walker, Gunter, Stirman, and Parks). John Buchanan's plea for D.C. Williams to suggest to the "Union" delegates to the Convention (in Little Rock) to plan to "get home and exert an influence for the Union" came too late. Lincoln called for troops and in May, Arkansas seceded from the Union.
Letter No.2
Mr. S.K. Stone Cane Hill, Jan. 12, 1864
Dear Sir
I wish to communicate a few facts to the commanding officer of the Post at Fayetteville, and not knowing his name or title, I address you, believing you will do me the kindness, to hand to the proper officer to be addressed on the subject contained in my communication.
Last week, Capt. Thos. Mackey, Mr. George Mackey, Shelton Herron, and others whose names I do not recollect, came to my house and took off two mules, two mares, and one horse. The horse belonged to my brother Isaac's family and was the only one the family owned, was sent to my care while a train of Indians from Fort Gibson were foraging in my brother's neighborhood. There being no male person in the family to take care of him. In March last Brother Isaac went up to Fayetteville and gave a bond for his loyalty to the Federal Government, the conditions of this bond was faithfully compiled with by him when an agent engaged in raising funds to supply the Southern army aid he remarked, "I would be glad for every soldier in the army to have a Bible but my obligation to the Government of the United States forbids my siding in such a work and I will not violate that obligation." The men who took the horse did not know that he belonged to my Brother's family, or perhaps they would not have taken him. I cannot believe the commanding officer would approve that taking of this animal from the bereaved and heart-broken family, by soldiers of his command, if he knew the circumstances, and this is the reason I write. The widow would prefer pay for the horse at a reasonable price than to have the horse returned, as he would in all probability be taken again. She would like to have such funds as would buy necessaries as the family need.
I am not able to go to Fayetteville or I would see the proper officer in person on the above subject.
I will now give you a statement on my own case. The men who took my two work mules, and brood mares, never asked me a question as to my political stand point. I here give it without reserve. I have never been a political partisan in my life; no an ever knew what my preference for political parties was. When the subject of Secession came up I opposed it in every reasonable way and with all the influence I possessed. But when the ordinance of secession was passed, and my state, in which I have lived for 43 years, became identified with the Southern confederacy, it became my duty in accordance with the plain teachings of the word of God as recorded in the 15th chapter of Romans and in the teachings of our Savior, to render loyal obedience to the government and laws that control the state in which I have citizenship, when the civil law is displaced and military power sways the scepter, being a noncombatant and unwilling to take up arms on either side, I feel that it is my duty to be as quiet as possible and let others settle the question of Government and when settled render to that Government true and loyal obedience. If the state of Arkansas is restored back to the Union and civil law again inaugurated I will sacredly obey that law if my feeble life is preserved to see it.
These are my true sentiments, settled and fixed in view of my duty to God and my fellow men, as I have been robbed of the greater part of my earthly possessions, and have nothing of that sort worth dividing among my children. I shall write out these sentiments in full and leave them to my children, and to the church for which I have labored so long and faithful that hey may know that the Bible tried to preach for nearly 30 years, was my guide through the stormy sea of life. It promises my sole support in view of death and my only hope for happiness beyond the grave. I have a clear conscience that I done all that was I my power, to prevent our present National troubles; for ten years I labored as agent for the American Bible Society in this state, visiting every county but three. In presenting the claims of this truly American institution, I tried to quell the spirit of sectional strife, that I then feared would overthrow our Government. It is for this hard labor that I am now suffering with diseased lungs on the crumbling verge of the grave. If it is just for the soldiers of the Government that I have thus sacrificed my life at least in part to sustain, to rob me of the last animal I have to work or ride, I will submit casting my care on Him who has said, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee>" But should the Commanding Officer think that I ought not to lose then I will thankfully receive what ever pay he thinks is just and right.
Truly your friend,
John Buchanan
P.S. I have one son in the Southern army taken there by conscript law of the Confederate States. J.B.
*Stephen K. Stone was a wealthy Fayetteville merchant who does not seem to have been bothered by either side during the war. John Buchanan probably wrote to Stone because he knew him personally and because he felt Stone might have some influence with the occupation force. The Stone family lived in their brick house on West Center street (still standing in 1961) throughout the war. But directly across the street the Federals had established their commissary department in the home of the Confederate Colonel Henry Rieff. This house also is still standing in 1961. The Stone house was hit by a solid shot during Fagan's attack on Fayetteville in October 1864, but otherwise suffered no war damage. It would be interesting to know if John Buchanan's letter go any action from Stephen K. Stone or from Col. M. Larue Harrison who was in command of the post in Fayetteville-- especially since Buchanan named the men who stole his livestock. Also, it would be interesting to know how John Buchanan's letter to Stephen K. Stone got into the Eno collection of war-time correspondence.
Today, Cane Hill is a very small community with really only a post office, and I'm not entirely sure that's still in service with the way the economy has hit our USPS. Its hard to believe at one time Cane Hill was the educational center of the states most populous county.
No comments:
Post a Comment