~ To Be Entirely Destitute Is A Very Severe Trial ~
~ 1864 ~

New Castle County, Delaware
Copyright © 1998, Frederick Smoot. All Rights Reserved.

Folded letter sheet.
No postmark.
Addressee:
        Mrs. Susan L. Taylor, Newport, Kentucky

Letter:

December 31st, 1864
Officers Barracks, Fort Delaware
Dear Madame,
        Yours of the 25th inst was rec’d this evening also the remittance for which you have my sincere thanks which is all I now have to offer.

        Although the sum may seem inconsiderable to you it will be of great service to myself. Indeed tis more money than I have had in a great while. We can do tolerably well with very little money but to be entirely destitute is a very severe trial. I saw Capt. B.F. Wright who says he has never rec’d your letter although he wrote you some three months since. I would be pleased to hear from you anytime and if there is any service I can render you, you have but to command me. My father is a lawyer and Secretary of Masonic Lodge at Cedar Bluff, Alabama which is my home address.

Your Sincere Friend,               
W. T. Robbins

Notes:
        This letter was written during W. T. Robbins’ confinement in a Union Prison at Fort Delaware. This proud officer is writing a letter of thanks for receiving a small sum of money from a Kentucky woman who was a philanthropist to Confederate soldiers incarcerated in Northern Prisons. Fort Delaware is located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. For detail account of Fort Delaware as a Union prison, see “Prisoners’ Mail from the American Civil War,” by Galen D. Harrison.

Transcription and Notes by Joyce Fischer
From the Collection of Joyce Fischer



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