In Their Own Words
May 13, 1864
Woman Concerned about Fiance and Longstreet
A Georgia woman who was engaged to a soldier in Virginia wrote him, concerned about his welfare; she had heard of the wounding of General James Longstreet.
“…We are awaiting with much anxiety and fear to hear the full results of the late engagement in Virginia. Not that we fear our army will be unable to cope with the enemy in his strategic movements, for we have already learned that in every effort so far he has been foiled and beaten back but the catalogue of our killed and wounded we fear will make us very sad to read over. We are grieved to hear that Gen. Longstreet was wounded but hope he will recover, that his wound may not prove fatal as did Gen. Jackson’s. …”
Source: Clyde G. Wiggins III (ed.), My Dear Friend: The Civil War Letters of Alva Benjamin Spencer, 3rd Georgia Regiment, Company C (Macon, Mercer University Press, 2007), p. 118.
