Mary Beckley Bristow
1862: The war has but commenced
January 1st 1862.
The old year has departed. And we as a family have been preserved and kept from many of the evils that have befallen many of the citizens of our once highly favored land. The civil war that we so much dreaded this day one year ago, with all its attendant evils has desolated our country in many places.1 Thousands of our fellow men of both North and South have been laid low, and to all human appearance the war is but commenced. The invaders’ feet are on Kentucky soil by thousands, and what is to be the end none but the omnipotent Jehovah knows. But I am well aware that not one thing can happen by accident. Thine Almighty hand, O Lord of Hosts, controls all worlds and creatures. . . . When I hear that those I love are taken from their homes and carried off to foreign prisons, let me remember that the Lord is the avenger of all such, and when I hear of many being shot down like dogs on their own hearthstones, O let me remember that Thou hast said vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord.2 There has been too much bitterness, too much deep revenge in my heart, particularly when my nephews, Jerome Bristow and Willie Respess, were prisoners in Camp Chase, Ohio.3 A demon could not have had more deadly venom in them than there was in my heart. Thou didst in mercy bring Jerome home to his sick Mother,4 but poor Willie is still there, and when last we heard from him was sick. O Lord, thou seest him. O, guard over him and bring him safe home. He is the only son of his Mother, and she is a widow.5 Have compassion on her, blessed Savior. . . .
January 2d 1862.
. . . Millie Clarkson called here a few moments this evening; was quite unwell and looks weary and worn. She feels sad to be obliged to beak up house keeping. I am sorry for her but feel assured in my mind the Lord cares for her. His mighty hand has piloted her through many scenes of pain and sorrow. He will not leave her now when she is growing old. . . .
January 7th 1862.
Made my way over the ice yesterday to Volney’s; persuaded Millie to come with me in the evening that we might go to meeting to day. This morning we started off alone. The horse she rode slipped about a good deal and made her quite nervous. However we got there safe and heard an excellent sermon. . . .
January 8th 1862
Have just heard that our meeting house, Sardis, where yesterday [we] heard such good preaching, is tonight filled with Lincoln’s soldiers. Well, the Lord knows and sees the whole matter.
January 9th 1862.
Heard this morning that the federal soldiers had left Union without doing any damage. I think I am thankful they did not, as it was supposed they would, arrest any of our fellow citizens, and I am glad they behaved so well that everyone seems disposed to praise them. I am very well satisfied that they are gone, and have no wish for them or any others of their stripe to return to this region any more. Dear Millie left today; I have missed her very much. . . .
.jpg "Yankee troops cross the Licking")
Union troops cross Licking Creek on a pontoon bridge.
March 12th 1862.
For weeks my heart has been too sad to write. The cause of liberty seems to have suffered loss in the South of late. Several battles have been gained by the Northern invaders of our soil. . . .6
This day a number of relatives, friends & neighbors met at our old family graveyard to see committed to the silent tomb the mortal remains of our dear old friend and brother in Christ (I hope), Joseph Kendrick.7 But we grieve that we shall no more meet our brother at the house of God, where with but few exceptions he has filled his seat for the past thirty years. . . .
Twenty-eight years ago the twenty-sixth day of this month I saw my brother Benjamin and his daughter Mary Jane laid close to where our old brother was laid. Soon after, another of his children, dear little Hettie Ann, was laid by his
side.8
For years past I have not seen that hallowed spot, though I but seldom ever visit my brother Reuben without seeing the cedar (that is now grown to a tolerably large tree) that grows over his grave, and my thoughts revert to the quiet sleeper that lies under its shade. This evening whilst the Free Masons were carrying on their foolish mummery over our dead brother (though I must acknowledge their burial service is some what impressive), I sat down at the head of my beloved brother’s grave and lived over very many things that happened in our childhood, schooldays, our youth and growing years, for he was twenty-seven years old and I twenty-four five when he died. I have often been told by my parents that my brother professed a hope in Christ when quite young. (I have a perfect recollection of making much sport of what I then called hypocondria [sic], but I knew no better then. After his death what a comfort this hypocondria was, none but those who have had the same feeling can imagine.) His actions were in accordance with that profession. Then I trust I may safely say, “He is not lost, but gone before.” And I humbly trust that when this frail body is laid in its Mother dust I shall see me my brother again. Whether I know him is of no importance. . . .
Dear Aunt Millie came with us from the grave as far as Volney’s. Trials appear to fall on her thickly of late. Last October she saw a beloved daughter (Lizzie) laid in the cold tomb, today her old Father. Her health is very poor yet she seemed resigned though deeply sad.
1862 March 13th.
My Niece Sarah Jane Dickerson sent for me this morning to come over to see Aunt Millie, who was too unwell to come here as I expected. I went, found Millie in bed, but nothing the matter but fatigue, loss of sleep, waiting on Uncle Jo., and her previous bad health. Watching a sick and dying friend is very exhausting to an already debilitated frame. . . .
1862/ Sunday, March 16th.
Friday evening Aunt Millie and Mollie Smith9 and her children came in. It rained so incessantly yesterday that neither of them could get from here until this morning. I begged Millie to stay, but her mind was set on going home. She was quite unwell, feared an attack of palpitation of the heart, a disease that has clung to her from her youth. . . .
1862 March 20th.
My Mother received a letter from her grandson, James B Ellis,10 today. He gives a very distressing account of the way Lincoln’s soldiers are going on in Missourie [sic], taking up peaceable citizens who have an opinion of their own and prefer the Southern Confederacy to Lincoln’s despotism, confiscating all their property, stealing their horses or taking them (but it is nothing but theft and robbery at last), and sending their prisoners to the penitentiary for no crime.11 I can’t keep my blood from boiling with angry rebellious feelings when I hear of such things. . . .
* * * * *
March 23rd 1862.
Answered my Nephew James Ellis’s letter today. . . . Both of our servants who have been sorely afflicted — one with rheumatism (Sim), the other (Ann) we have been fearful would lose her eye — are some better. I fear Sim may lose his home by his sickness. It may turn out for the best.
March 31st 1862.
Have been forced to hear those heart-saddening cannon all this evening. Cannot know the cause but fear the Federals have gained a victory somewhere of the Confederates.12 . . .
Brother Julius is very ill but seems some better today.
1862 April 4th.
Have suffered greatly today with my side. Could sit in a chair but a short time. Finished a letter to my Cousin Millie Jane Clarkson by lying down several times whilst I was writing. . . .
April 5th 1862.
Did not receive much benefit from going to meeting to day. Brother Lassing’s exhortation was doubtless good, but I was in too much pain to hear to profit. Missed our beloved old brother Kendrick; his chair was empty. I found myself wondering if in spirit he was not here with us. Br Julius put on his clothes this morning; walked about a little.
* * * * *
1862 April 9th.
This has been another rainy, dark day. I don’t think it ceased the whole day until this evening. Whether it is the damp, disagreeable weather or the disease of the liver I know not, but Brother Julius still continues very poorly; he’s in bed nearly all the time. I hope he will mend faster when he can get out. . . .
April 10th 62.
This has been a dark, cold day, but no rain. I have been suffering a good deal with difficult breathing. Mother complains so much of a pain in her breast. This morning I felt quite uneasy, nor has she been entirely easy all day. Br Julius seems much better I think to day than he has ever been since he was attacked two weeks ago. Sim is much better. I believe poor Ann’s eyes are very bad. She is a pitiable object. Received a letter from Cousin Sarah Stephens this evening. She has been very ill, not yet able to be up much. . . .
* * * * *
1862 April 12th.
Anselm & Martha got home today. In a very short time after they came in, it commenced raining and it has been quite stormy ever since. Mat is quite poorly; has had two chills since she left home. We have had some very cheering news from the Southern army, if it be true.13 I am very Chary about believing all I hear. O, Lord, if consistent with thy heavenly will turn the invaders back from our soil. They have no right nor business in our country. Why should they meddle with slavery? It is no sin to them, and we are willing to bear the blame. The letter I received from Cousin Sarah Stephens has distressed me and made my blood boil. She writes that two young ladies have been shot down like dogs in their own homes. The unfortunate Colonel McGoffin,14 who is a prisoner in St. Louis, is lying on straw in a dungeon so damp that the water is all the time dripping on him. . . .
* * * * *
April 27th 1862.
This has been a bright, beautiful Lord’s day. After breakfast I walked out in the front yard. I thought I had never witnessed a more lovely, tranquil scene. The flowery almond was in full bloom, the lilies and snowballs gave promise of future loveliness. The fruit, plums, cherries & apples, are loaded with rich bloom. The industrious little bees were busily engaged extracting honey from the flowers. The noble old forest in front of the house was rendered musical by the little songsters flitting from bough to bough among the lofty trees. All, all, was beautiful. Two years ago how much should I have enjoyed the quiet scene, but now my heart is sad. War, dreadful, calamitous war, is in our country, and I know not but at the very moment I was gazing on the lovely scene, the same Sun that shone on all around so brightly might be shedding his rays on the dead and dying of a dreadful battle field, or a battle might be at that moment going on between Northern invaders and the gallant defenders of my country and of all I hold dear on earth.15 O, that I could be thankful for the many blessings and mercies freely bestowed upon me and cheerfully trust my country, my all, in the hands of my kind Heavenly Father who has ever favored me far beyond my deserts.
April 28th 1862.
Another lovely day until late in the afternoon. Then the clouds began to arise. Now it is raining and I can but feel anxious about Anselm who is probably on his road from the city with a loaded waggon in this dark, rainy night. . . . For weeks my health has been gradually declining. I was not able to sit up but little in the forenoon. Quilted some this evening. . . .
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| Yanks advance at Shiloh |
May 11th 1862.
Very many things have transpired since I wrote in this Record. Anselm & Mat have moved home, and one or the other have been chilling ever since. I doubt whether they have had the leisure they anticipated in housekeeping. Henry had his right front finger cut off, the one next to it nearly off.16 Mother has been complaining far more than common. Owing to her great age, complaint from her is always formidable. We cannot expect to have her long. All except Mother are better, seem to be getting along very well. . . . We hear much of what to my shortsighted knowledge looks like bad news from the South, and although such news makes my distrustful heart tremble, yet soon a better feeling prevails. I recollect that Jehovah [illegible] can cause all those untoward events (even if true) to work for the good of the Southern cause. I hope I do at times feel like standing still and waiting the Lord’s time to save my country.
"God of the Seas, Thy thundering voice
Makes all the roaring waves rejoice,
And one soft word of Thy command
Can sink them silent in the sands."
* * * * *
Nov 12th 1862.
. . . I have not written one word nor recorded neither storm nor calm that has passed with or without. The storm has passed for the present; that is, the two armies, Northern & Southern, have left our immediate neighborhood.17 Not so its desolations where the Northern army was encamped. (The rebels were I am informed careful not to injure more than could be helped. It seems devastation was the aim of the Yankees.) Well I am truly glad that the people I love has acted better than their enemies. May they always act so is my desire. . . .
1862 December 12th.
Received a letter from Kate Dickerson,18 my niece. Hardly know how to call her by her [new] name, been so long saying Kate Ellis. She gave a heartrending account of the enormities committed by Lincoln’s Dutch troops in Mo.19 They came very near shooting two of my nephews.20 . . .
December 13th 1862.
Mother rode to Anselm’s today, the first time she has been out of the yard since the first of October. She was taken sick about that time & for several weeks I had little hope of her recovery, but the Lord has raised [her] up again in his mercy, for which I desire to return sincere thanks. Millie Clarkson (who I hope will spend the winter with us as one of our family), Sarah Jane Dickerson, her two daughters, & Nan Breckinridge were with us at Anselm’s. (Jennie, Millie’s daughter,21 came in the evening.) I was too poorly to have any enjoyment. [I] came home, laid down for an hour or two, got up, ate supper, and read until nine o’clock in the life of George Whitefield,22 the liberated field preacher. Believe him to have been a Christian enthusiast, but hardly know to judge him yet. I am very tired and sleepy.
Dec. 14th [1862].
I felt very feeble this morning; have been very poorly all day. Had just got my room cleaned up. Got the life of Whitefield and was laying myself down on the bed to read, when Br Lassing came in. I was glad to see him, not having seen him since our meeting. I can see he is very unhappy about his son, Dr Lassing, who is sick at Johnson’s Island,23 where he has been a prisoner of war since July. I do hope the Lord will watch over and bring him safe home at his own time & give his parents fortitude to bear and easy hearts to trust in him, if it be his will. We spent a pleasant day.
Dec 17th 1862.
This day is my dear old Mother eighty-six years old; many have been the changing scenes of her rather eventful life. When she was born, America was battling with old Mother England for her independence. After a long and bloody struggle that independence was achieved, and the United States became one of the greatest nations of the earth, blessed with more liberty, civil and religious, than any other people. But Alas, where is it now? Gone with the things that were. One half of our people fighting to enslave the other, and in the unjust war that has been waged by the North against the South acts of cruelty and barbarity have been perpetrated that would bring just execrations upon the most unenlightened nations of the earth. Yet could and no doubt my dear old Mother would adopt the language of old, “Hitherto hath the Lord sustained me.”24
Even down to old age all thy people shall prove
Thy sovereign eternal unchangeable love.
And when hoary hairs their temples adorn,
Like lambs they still in my bosom be borne.
Dec 25th 1862.
Christmas day is about closing. I left Mother, Millie & Br Julius at home. Mat, little Nannie & I got in the buggy though it was raining and went over to Volney’s to take our Christmas dinner with Sarah Jane. I found a good many of our relatives we had not seen for some time. Partook of an excellent dinner, had a good deal of chat such as relations are apt to have on such occasions, then came home. Those whom we had left at home looked very quiet and I thought rather lonely. Although it was still raining, Mat & Ance went to her Mother’s. I don’t think we have had rain on Christmas day for many years before. I can but feel lonely & sad. Many of our beloved ones are missing who were wont to spend their Christmas with us. Some of them, dearly loved ones & many young friends I have seen growing up from children around me are far away in the army battling for liberty. What a pang shoots through the heart when the thought intrudes, as it often does, that perhaps some of those gallant forms that we were too proud of are lying still and cold on some battlefield. Many, Oh how many, noble hearts have ceased to beat within the past year. How many sad hearts there are in our country this night, none but He who holds the life of all creatures in his Almighty hand alone can tell. O Lord have mercy on us and if consistent with thy will drive the invaders from our soil and give us peace. I ask in the name of Jesus.
While with ceaseless course the sun
Hasted through the former year,
Many souls their race have run
Never more to meet us here.25
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Notes:
[Click on footnote number to return to text.]
1 By this time in Mary’s mind the phrase no longer referred to the United States, but to the Confederacy.
2 Romans 12:19.
3 A Federal Prisoner of War camp near Columbus, one of several established by early 1862. It was in operation until June 1865. (See William Best Hesseltine, Civil War Prisons.)
4 Jerome — and a little later, Willie — benefited from a curious chivalry which prevailed during the early stages of the war, through which prisoners were exchanged, or sometimes even released on giving their word (parole) not to fight again until exchanged. (See below, 26 Jan 1865.)
5 Susannah Conde Russell Corlis (1803-1874), who had married Major William Machen Respess (1799-1854) in Sep 1826 in Bourbon County. Of ten children, only Willie and two sisters survived infancy. The Major died of stroke, as noted by General Leonard Stephens, in a letter of 10 Oct 1854 to his brother William, who had some business dealings with him:
- You will see that R. L. Bristow has signed the release as administrator. Some three or four days after I wrote the last letter to you Majr. Respess had a second stroke of Paralises which terminated his existence in some 18 hours afterwards; he died on Saturday, the 29th of July. . . . [Stephens Letters, 27.]
The widow had chosen “her friend, Reuben L. Bristow” to administer the estate. [Kenton Orders 3:225.]
6 The Union Army bested the Confederates at Mill Springs, Kentucky, on 19 Jan, leading to the evacuation of Bowling Green in early February and Columbus a month later. Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee fell to U. S. Grant, opening the central South to invasion. President Jefferson Davis shared Mary’s unease, writing to Albert Sidney Johnston, his western commander, “We have suffered great anxiety because of recent events in Kentucky and Tennessee.”
7 Joseph Kendrick (1785-1862). He was a first cousin of Maria (Kendrick) Wilson, Martha Jane’s mother. Some indication of the complex relationships among these families from Virginia can be seen in the following: In addition to one daughter (Millie) marrying a Clarkson (Manoah), Joseph Kendrick had been guardian to Patsy Neal, who had married Manoah’s elder brother, James Minor Clarkson. Another daughter, Joseph Ann Frances, married James G. Wilson, Maria’s son. The “old family graveyard” was not that of General Stephens, but probably one closer to Union, location not known.
8 Benjamin’s three surviving children included a son, James S. Bristow, who was raised by an uncle, Dr. Thomas J. Trundle, near Big Bone, and a daughter, Kate (who appears several times in the Record). Another daughter, Benjamin Ann, was born seven months after her father’s death. Benjamin’s widow, Sarah Ann Trundle (whom he had married 9 Aug 1827 in Bourbon County), remarried a few years later (1841) to William Berkshire. When Sarah’s brother John and second husband died in 1854, she and Bennie Ann moved to Monroe County, Missouri, where Kate had already settled. Bennie Ann there married in 1858 Samuel Curtright (1835-1921), but she remained in contact with her friends and kinfolk in Kentucky. A list of Bennie Ann’s correspondents from her diary survives. Both Kate and her mother are buried near Bennie Ann in the Curtright Cemetery not far from Paris, Missouri.
Young James also had moved to Little Dixie in Missouri, but he returned to Boone County to marry on 22 Nov 1853, Emeline Frazier (1834?- -?-). Emma, whose real surname may have been Porter, was an orphan from Ohio, who was living with four younger siblings in the household of James Frazier in Boone County in 1850). James seems to have died not long before the 1870 census, leaving a widow and seven children. Emma remarried in 1873 Samuel Bealmear (1824- -?-).
9 Mary Virginia Parrish (1840-1874), daughter of Edmund Hockaday Parrish and his second wife, Mary’s cousin, Virginia Bristow. She had married John D. Smith (1834-1903), who was managing his father-in-law’s farm near Union. Their children were Edmund Daniel Smith and Thomas Crittenden Smith.
10 Mary’s nephew, the brother of John B. Ellis, Kate’s first husband. 1860 found him in Audrain County, Missouri, where he was listed as a farmer, age 43, with his second wife, Cath (Hays), 38. A daughter from his first marriage, Annie Phillips, lived nearby. (See below, 29 Nov 1864.)
11 The U S Army’s actions to put down rebellion and chastise Southern sympathizers in Missouri were especially heavy-handed, and inflamed segments of an already disaffected population. The entire state had been under martial law since August 1861. (See below, 12 Dec 1862.)
12 Although Mary seems to think that the Union Army fired off their artillery for psychological effect — to celebrate success in the field and to taunt Southern sympathizers within earshot — I suspect the sounds she heard were often the result of nothing more significant than routine gunnery practice.
13 Both sides claimed victory at Shiloh, fought 6-7 April.
14 Probably Col. Ebenezer Magoffin, a brother of the Kentucky Governor, Beriah Magoffin. Ebenezer was confined under harsh conditions at the Gratiot Street Prison in Saint Louis. The recalcitrant prisomer caused his captors so much trouble he was transferred across the Mississippi to a new POW facility in Alton, Illinois. He soon escaped with his two sons, to inflict more damage on the Yankees. See Lonnie R. Speer, Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War, 68-69, 229. Because of their exploits he and his sons naturally became heroes to Southern sympathizers. See History of Saline County, Missouri, 650.
Cousin Sarah’s tales of Yankee atrocities sound like the sort of propaganda in which both sides freely indulged.
15 Mary’s observations recall descriptions of the orchard at Shiloh, where the petals of the apple blossoms fell like snow upon the dead.
16 The family reported the birth of a slave named Henry on 15 Apr 1857. He would have been barely five years old. But the Henry in question might have been the father or an uncle of the little boy.
17 Confederate raids into the Bluegrass and northern Kentucky in July, led by John Hunt Morgan, and possibly including Mary’s nephew Jerome and his friends, had discomfited Federal officials. A more substantial Rebel incursion in September under Braxton Bragg brought the CSA forces as far north as Florence and Independence. One historian noted, “Indeed there was near panic in Cincinnati and Louisville, as well as in smaller communities near the Ohio, as strenuous measures were taken to prepare for the Confederate onslaught. Rumors of Union disaster swept through Cincinnati.” [James L. McDonough, The War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville, 150.] When Bragg’s forces withdrew, Federal troops came across the Ohio in considerable numbers.
18 She had married in Audrain County, Missouri, 10 May 1862, Julius Lunsford Dickerson (1810-1877?), who was another cousin. Kate and her Ellis children joined Lunsford in nearby Monroe County. Lunsford died in the late 1870s, leaving Kate a widow for the second time, with another two orphans. (See Appendix I and the Introduction.)
19 The pro-Union Missouri Home Guards from Saint Louis, largely made up of recent immigrants from Germany, who held strong anti-slavery sentiments. Units of the Union Army had been active in Monroe and Boone Counties in previous weeks.
20 Living near Kate and Lunsford were his widowed brother Dabney Dickerson and his sister Sidonia with her husband John P. White (yet another cousin). The White family had three boys in their teens and twenties, at an age to show their resentment of Federal high-handedness. Kate’s children and those of her brother James were still small.
21 Mary Jane Clarkson (1845?- ), Millie and Manoah’s youngest child.
22 Son of a tavern keeper, Whitefield (1710-1770) was an evangelist and leader of Calvinist Methodism. He was a noted preacher in both Britain and the colonies at the time of the Great Awakening. Mary was probably reading the first American biography by D. Newell, which had been published in 1846.
23 Henry C. Lassing, a physician, was 32 in 1860, and unmarried. He had enlisted in Company B, Jessee’s Kentucky Mounted Rifles 22 July 1862, but his service was brief. He had been left sick in November 1862 during the Confederate retreat from Kentucky and was captured by Union troops. Dr Lassing survived the war and returned to Boone County to raise a family. Johnson’s Island was a the Federal POW camp, in Lake Erie, a mile from Sandusky, Ohio. [See Compiled Service Records, Roll 319; Hesseltine, 38-40; Rouse, 198.]
24 Source not identified.
25 From a hymn by John Newton, 1779.
