Letter to Chloe Unity Blair
Booker, John, 1840-1864
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About the electronic version
Letter to Chloe Unity Blair
Booker, John, 1840-1864
Creation of machine-readable version: Stephen R. Welch
Creation of digital images: Special Collections Dept. University of Virginia
Conversion to TEI.2-conformant markup: Stephen R. Welch
This version available from the University of Virginia Library.
Charlottesville, Va.
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http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengB.browse.html
http://etext.virginia.edu/rbs/97/
1997
Note: Images of the manuscript pages have been included.
About the print version
Letter to Chloe Unity Blair
John Booker
Note: James and John Booker tend to use commas instead of periods to end a sentence. In the modernized version of this letter, we have regularized the punctuation in unambiguous cases.
Note: The bottom of the third page of the letter is torn off, but no text appears to be missing. Prepared for the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center.
The original lineation has been preserved, and all end-of-line hyphens have been retained.
Keywords in the header are a local Electronic Text Center scheme to aid in establishing analytical groupings.
Published: 1862, February 19
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ALS1862 February 19 Boo2b19
John Booker, Camp Smith, near Manassas, Virginia, letter to Chloe Unity Blair
Writing from the company's winter quarters near the battlefield of First Manassas, JohnBooker describes his brother James' sickness, which has left him weak and without anappetite. Other soldiers, including Nathaniel Robertson and Neal Gilbert, have struggledwith illness; one, Josiah Burnett, has died. Booker ends his letter by expressing hispleasure at having received his cousin Unity's letter and apologizing thathis brother James was unable to write.
[Page 1]
February 19th, 621
Camp Smith near Manassas
Dear Cousin,
I have been long intending
writing to you, and tonight
I will try and write you a few lines
in order to let you know how we
are. I am as well as I could expect
to be under the present circumstances.
Jimmy is quite sick &
have been for the last week.
I don't know what's the matter with
him. He have weakened down as
fast for the last week as I
ever saw any one. He don't eat
anything scarcely at all.
He seems to be resting very
well tonight. He don't complain
but very little, though I am afraid
he is a going to have a bad spell.
I wouldn't begrudge nothing if
he were at home where he could
[Page 2]
be tended to better. 2 Fleman
Gregory3 is quite sick; he has the fever.
There are several more of the
boys complaining, the most of
them has the mumps. Sirous
Burnett,4 a member of our company
died last week. Mr. Faris 5
expects to start home with Bilia
this week, Nathaniel Robertson 6
& Neal Gilbert 7 left here a
few days a go, to go to the hospital. They
expected to get
furloughs to go home from there.
Clifton Penick 8 got here yesterday. Your
letter came to
hand in due time, I were glad to
hear that you were all well.
Jimmy told me to tell you that
he would have written to you
before now but he was not
able.
I will close as the light
keeps Jimmy from I sleep. Give
[Page 3]
my love to all the family &
write soon to your affectionate
cousin
John Booker,
to Miss Unity B;
excuse this badly
written letter
Notes
[1] The 38th Virginia spent December 26, 1861 to early March of 1862 in winter quarters near the battlefield of First Manassas. Many of the soldiers were ill due to the extreme cold, rain, ice, and snow, as well as to the diseases that were circulating in the camp, particularly the mumps (Gregory 10-11).
[2] On March 2, 1862, James Booker was admitted to Richmond General Hospital #18 with chronic diarrhea (Gregory 82).
[3] "Flem Gregory" probably refers to James F. Gregory of Company D, who enlisted with the Bookers at Whitmell. He was admitted to Richmond Hospital in July of 1863, and was on sick furlough from July 20-August 29, 1863. He returned to Company D until he was wounded in action at Drury's Bluff on May 16, 1864 (Gregory 98). He entered Richmond Hospital with a severe leg wound, then was transferred to a Danville hospital. He deserted from the Danville hospital on the 26th of September in 1864, but returned by the end of the year. He was taken prisoner at White Oak Road in April of 1865, and was released in June of 1865 (Gregory 98). See also John Booker's letter of December 22, 1863, where he writes that Flem Gregory is ill.
[4] Josiah Burnett was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital on October 26, 1861 with typhoid fever, but returned to his company on the 16th of December, 1861. He died of meningitis on Feburary 12, 1862 (Gregory 84). See James Booker's letter of September 6, 1861, where he first reports that Burnett is ill.
[5] "Mr. Faris" is probably William Faris, who enlisted with the Booker brothers at Whitmell and was discharged on a surgeon's certificate of disability on January 27, 1862 (Gregory 93).
[6] Nathaniel Robertson, a native of Pittsylvania County, enlisted in Company D with the Booker brothers in May of 1861. He was furloughed from February 15 to March 17 of 1862 so that he could recover his health (Gregory 121).
[7] Cornelius Gilbert enlisted with Booker brothers at Whitmell. By July of 1862, he was promoted to Color Corporal. He received a gunshot wound to the head at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, and died at Chimborazo #2 on July 3, 1862 (Gregory 96).
[8] "Clifton Pinick" probably is Charles Clifton Penick, who was with Company D from its founding in May of 1861. He served as a Quarter Master Sergeant in the Confederate Army until he was paroled at Appomatox in 1865. He later became a missionary in West Africa and the Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church Richmond at Shenandoah Flats (Gregory, 117). Penick is also mentioned in James Booker's letter of November 24, 1862. 
