The following letter was written by Luntford Ballenger Gravley (1829-1922) of Twelve Mile, Pickens, South Carolina. He was the son of Joseph Lontford Gravely (1803-1886) and Mary Elizabeth Ann Gilstrap (1810-1874). He was married in 1854 to Naomi Winchester (1834-1924).

During the Civil War, Luntford enlisted as a private in Ferguson’s Co. Light Artillery in April 1863. On 2 April 1864 at Dalton (as stated in his letter), he was determined to be unfit for field service and ordered to report to Gen. [Ambrose] Wright in Atlanta.

The letter was written to James Earle Hagood (1826-1904) in Pickens. In 1856, Hagood was elected the clerk of the circuit court in Pickens District and he held the position until 1868 when the district was divided. He became a lawyer and a cotton grower.

[Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Greg Herr and was offered for transcription and publication on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Atlanta, Georgia
April 19, 1864

Mr. James Hagood,

I have the privilege of seating myself to drop you a few lines to inform you that my health is tolerable bad. I haven’t been well since I left home. I have got the rheumatism and the dyspepsia both a working on me and I am unfit for field service. I went before the board at Dalton and was counted unfit for field service and I have got a detail assigned by General Johnston and Hardee and had orders to report to Brigadier General Wright for duty in Atlanta, Georgia. And I reported at his office and I was sent to the Convalescent Camps and I have been here some over two weeks and I don’t know how long I will have to stay here. I would be mighty glad that I could get as near my family as I could that I might get things from home that I stood in need of for times is mighty hard here and the prices powerful high and unreasonable.

I will now ask of you one favor, I don’t know as I ever went to you for a favor but what I got it. You could grant it me. And now I want you to get me a detail about there of some light duty or in twenty or thirty miles of there. I was assigned to light duty for I han’t able for hard duty. And if I could get up in Pickens, I would be mighty glad for I could do as much there for the government as I could here or more for perhaps my health would be better. And if you can get me a detail all out there or at Pendleton or at Greenville, I will be much obliged to you and I will pay you for your trouble. And if I get me a detail, you must makke application to General Wright for me and perhaps he will let me go. General Wright lives in town Atlanta.

So I must close. So remains yours — L. B. Gravley

To Mr. James Hagood