Letter from John N. Windham to Edward Harley Woodham, 1862, Dale, Alabama http://ftp.rootsweb.oom/pub/usgenweb/al/dale/history/letters/ehwoodham.txt ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed and copyrighted by: John Simmons ==================================================================== July 1999 A letter written to Mr. Edward Harley Woodham by his grandson John N. Windham in 1862. CAMP WIGFALL NEARE MANNASSAZ, VA.Monday Morning, February 24, 1862 Mr. E. H. Woodham, Sir, I seat myself this morning to drop you a few lines to inform you how we are getting on. I can say to you that I am in good health. James R. Woodham has been very sick but is recovering. The other boys are getting on very well. T. C. Lee has returned from the hospital, John R. Woodham, I expect is on his way home. His furlough was forwarded to him a few days ago. This is the mudiest place in the world beyond doubt. The boys are spoiling for a fight. There are some of the worst fellows here I ever have seen. They steal anything that's fit to eat. While I was home on furlough the boys were out on picket and C. A. Moody, a member of my company borrowed a man's ax and killed one of his hogs with it and the man never found it out. I don't think that there is salt enough to save some of the boys. Samuel Woodham is on double duty and is ditching the streets now for going to sleep Saturday night and not answering to his name. I was detailed to cut and haul logs to build a guard house and worked all day yesterday which made the second Sunday I have worked since I have been in the Army. I hope the Dale County Boys will now come out and show their patriotism. For if ever there was a time when their country needs their service it is now. If the patriotic young men of Dale county will not rally to the cause of their country and take a musket and face the enemy I hope the ladies will furnish them with petticoats and hoop skirts and knitting needles and put them down to knitting soxs for those that run in the war. And if they need money to make purchases of hoop skirts for them, the boys here say that we'll furnish the money. How must those laggards blush when they get old, and their children or grandchildren shall ask them where they were and what they did at this time and date of this war. They will have to confess that they staid at home and tried to make money. While patriots were in the war exposing their lives to dangers of more than one kind. Those young men who stay at home to enjoy themselves in the society of the young ladies and who think their lives too sacred to sacrifice upon the alter of their country, are surely not aware that there are not less than fifteen or twenty thousand men standing on picket guard at all times suffering with the cold and rain and snow to keep the enemy from overrunning this bright sunny South. So a matter of course we all suffer here and are deprived of all for men. Also rations, but like patriots and soldiers we bear it without grumbling. I have a ticket to a Grand Military ball tomorrow night but don't expect to attend. Two or three others of our company have tickets. Tender my respects to all friends reserving a portion for yourself. John N. Windham The lineage of John Marvette Simmons, Jr. , who copied this. Edward Harley Woodham 1785-1865 of Dale County, Ala---Eleanor Dupree Woodham 1817-1890 m. Samuel G. Windom 1813-1890 of Dale Co., Ala.--- (John N. Windom their first born); Theodocia Eufrassa Windom m. Cader Alexander Lee 1840-1910--- Jessie Lee 1870-1948 m. Henry Williams 1866-1896---Beulah Gertrude Williams 1887-1970 m. John Kelly Simmons 1885-1950--- John Marvette Simmons, Sr 1909-1995 m. Onie Lee Riley 1909-1986---John Marvette Simmons, Jr. 1936 to present, never married without children note: T.E. Windham and husband Cader Alexander Lee also had a son, Amasa Coleman (Coley) Lee, who was the father of Nell Harper Lee, the author of the book "To Kill a Mocking Bird". "Always us living Love", JOHN SIMMONS