“These are dark days we are all passing through now, but some think it is only the beginning. The twilight, as it were, of a dark, long night, & that the New Year that has just dawned will be a “year of blood.” So wrote 32 year-old Mary Jones Wiley (1829-1893), the wife of Atlanta Hardware Merchant William H. Gilbert (1827-1882), in a letter to her aunt on New Year’s day in 1862. Mary’s aunt is not identified but was probably from the Wiley side of the family and a resident of Mobile.
Mary was the daughter of Edwin Wiley (1784-1866) and Eliza DeWitt (1797-1865) of Hancock county, Georgia.
[Note: This letter is from the private collection of Greg Herr and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]
Transcription
“A happy New Year!” dear Aunty & may you be permitted to spend yet many New Years and always happy ones. I just wish you could sit down here with us today & spend a quiet day. I couldn’t promise you a very sumptuous dinner. I dare say you will do a great deal better in your elegant home—but I should love to see you here with us once more. It is a long time since we heard from you. I wish I was as good a correspondent as you are. It is a real pleasure to have a punctual correspondent.
We are all, I am glad to say, in our usual health. My baby [“Maime”] is a little complaining with an eruption—from teething I think—but she is a great big, fat baby, very much resembling my little boy [Alfred].
Well, what shall I write about? There are many things no doubt you would like to hear—that I cannot think of. These are dark days we are all passing through now, but some think it is only the beginning. The twilight, as it were, of a dark, long night, & that the New Year that has just dawned will be a “year of blood.” God be with us—protect & sustain us. The sacrifice has already been great, but doubtless we are not sufficiently humbled yet, or our punishment would be removed. Well, we will know how to enjoy & appreciate peace & liberty when it does come.
I don’t think any of us have written since Wells was here on his way to Pensacola. But he said he was going to Mobile & I dare say you have seen him long before this. I never saw anyone more changed in appearance than he. He looked so well. We were all very glad to see him. I have lately heard quite particularly from Hancock [county, Georgia]. Mr. G[ilbert] spent a week just before Christmas there & visited all around at sister’s, Cousin Billy Lewis, R[ichard] M[alcolm] Johnston’s, Pa’s, &c. &c. He found Cousin Billy sick with a cold, but he has got over it entirely. They were all at home. Mat was quite unwell too he said, but up. She had a dreadful cold. Ma has had a very severe attack this winter & is still very feeble. I fear she is failing very fast. I do believe that the troubles of the country have much to do with it. She & Sallie made me a little visit in October. Sallie bears Sammy’s absence surprisingly well, but she has many, many trials.
Mr. [Richard Malcolm] Johnston & Fannie & family 1 are well and have lately moved back from Athens to their old place [near Sparta], built a large comfortable cottage with eleven rooms, & will soon have it filled with boys. He is going to teach a select school. They have got their hands full certain. Mr. G[ilbert] said they are killing hogs and the plasterers there, house full of mud and plank, & laths & everything of course topsy turvey hurrying to get things straight for the boys.
You asked in your last to me about Aunt Avis. 2 She is very feeble this winter but is at times very calm & even appears almost cheerful but I don’t know that she is any more reconciled to her loss. She grieves for those two previous children. Henry [Dewitt Beman] & his wife came back to Georgia last June & are now living at Uncle Beman’s. They are very much attached to Belle who is devoted to them & adds immensely to their happiness. Poor Tom, lost his wife this last summer. She died of typhoid fever there at Uncle Beman’s after weeks of intense suffering. Left three little ones—the baby but eight months old. Tom has given to Henry & Bella who had no children. Aunt Avis has the other two—Willie & Kate. The baby’s name is Edward. Tom has lately gone on to Virginia to join his company—the same one that Sammy belongs to. Sammy has had an attack of Catarrhal fever. Was in Richmond several weeks but was fortunate enough to get to a very nice, private house. Has recovered & I believe gone back to his tent home.
Jesse [Gilbert] 3 was here last week, on a sick furlough, but got well and has gone back. He has been sick a good deal of the time & is hardly as stout as he was. Maggie is keeping house here on their lot. Her baby is rather delicate. I forget whether I wrote to you since it was born or not. It’s name is Eliza H.
We heard yesterday of the death of Mr. Bryan & we heard too that Russell Whaley’s wife committed suicide a few days ago by cutting her throat. You know they live near Sparta. 4 Mrs. John Bonner also is dead—poor woman. What a sufferer she has been with that cancer.
We have had a most delightful winter—no snow or sleet & not very much ice. But today looks threatening & I fear we are to have winter weather the remainder of the winter. I suppose you all are almost ready to begin gardening. The weather has been very suitable for it here for the last few weeks. We are living here on our same lot but have at last moved the kitchen back & built a house for the negroes, moved the stable &c. back & got all fenced in quite conveniently, & I must tell you that Mr. G[ilbert] sold that carriage yesterday that you didn’t fancy a bit, & I never did either, so I don’t know as we will have any at all when you come again. He says he will get one to suit him when he gets able.
I have lately heard from Ridgewood that Uncle Jones is better—able to ride out & sometimes speak so as to be understood. Aunt Jones is feeble. Julia has been very dangerously ill with “congestion of liver & upper bowels” but is now able to sit up. She & Dewitt were here last fall.
Monday. After such a long pause I sit down to finish my poor apology for a letter. I have written with such a miserable pen that I fear it will puzzle you to read this. Mother Gilbert wishes me to say to you that her health is better this winter that it has been in a long time & that you must not think hard of her for not writing. She has wanted to & felt like writing a long time but she is in constant trouble & anxiety about Jesse & can’t fix her mind on it. And that you must take part of this from her, &c. &c.
Mr. Gilbert sends love to you all. You must write & let us know how you are this winter & dear me, I see the Yankees are threatening Mobile. What so you all think of it? May the Lord send confusion into their midst & scatter them as chaff.
Mother G[ibert] joins me in love to yourself & Cousin M. & family. Believe me your affectionate niece, — Mary Gilbert
1 Richard Malcolm Johnson (1822-1898) attended Mercer University and then became a lawyer in 1843. In 1857 he accepted an appointment to the chair of belles-lettres and oratory at the University of Georgia in Athens. When the Civil War disrupted the college, he began a school for boys on his farm near Sparta. For a time he served on the staff of Confederate general Joseph E. Brown and helped organize the state militia. After the war he moved to Baltimore and opened a school for boys there.
2 Avis D. Dewitt (1800-1863) was the wife of Carlisle Pollock Beman (1797-1875) of Hancock county, Georgia. Their two oldest boys are mentioned in this letter. Thomas Spenser Beman (1825-1862) was married in 1856 to Lucy Mariah Preston (1835-1861). When she died on 24 September 1861, Thomas gave their youngest child, Edward Douglas Beman (1861-1928) to his brother Henry to raise. He the left his two eldest children, Willard P. Beman (1858-1926) and Kate D. Beman (1860-1951) to be raised by their grandmother while he returned to his regiment, 15th Georgia (Co. E), then quartered in Virginia. Thomas would never return to Georgia—he was killed in the Battle of 2nd Manassas on 30 August 1862.
3 Jesse D. Gilbert (1837-Bef1890) was the son of Darius Gilbert (1800-1850) and Elizabeth Hart Hardwick (1801-1891) of Atlanta, Georgia. Jesse was married to Margaret P. Rogans (B. 1840) in November 1860 and their first born child was Elizabeth (“Lila”) H. Gilbert (1861-1942). Lila was born on 1 September 1861.
4 It was Martha Ann Walker (1824-1860), the wife of Hancock county planter James Russell Whaley (1808-1892), who committed suicide. One source gives her death as 15 November 1860 but it was probably 1861. Russell soon married a second wide by the name of Susan Johnson (1830-1911).
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