William Porcher DuBose Correspondence PDF Download

Author: William Porcher Dubose
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ISBN:
Category : Bull Run, 2nd Battle of, Va., 1862
Languages : en
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Book Description
This collection of approximately 160 letters chiefly consist of letters from William Porcher DuBose to his fiancée, and later his wife, Nannie (Anne Barnwell Peronneau), chronicling his four years of military service as an officer and a chaplain. DuBose entered military service early in the war as an adjutant in the Holcombe Legion (initially state troops, and later a Confederate unit in Evans' Brigade). In Dec. 1861 he wrote from Adams Run, S.C., and the following month, described an expedition to Edisto Island, S.C. DuBose was wounded at Second Manassas, and the following month was taken prisoner near Boonesboro, Md., and sent to Fort Delaware, Del., as a prisoner of war. A few months later he was exchanged and soon returned to active service, rejoining his command in North Carolina, where he was seriously wounded in a battle near the town of Kinston. In summer 1863 Evans' Brigade was in Mississippi, and the letters mention fighting at Jackson and Vicksburg. Late in 1863, DuBose was commissioned as a chaplain, with orders to report to Kershaw's Brigade. He ministered at a church in Greeneville, Tenn., and in 1864 returned to Virginia with Kershaw's Brigade. The correspondence includes many letters from DuBose to Nannie reflecting on spiritual matters and expressing his love for her. His letters sometimes mention the spiritual condition of individuals, the troops, and other chaplains, including John L. Girardeau, whom DuBose admires. Friends and family are also frequent topics, and there are numerous references to Gen. "Shanks" Evans. The correspondence includes a letter to DuBose from his close friend John Johnson, several letters from Nannie, and a letter (22 Sept. 1862) to DuBose's sister Mrs. Marion Porcher from Colonel Peter F. Stevens concerning the fate of her "noble and lovely brother" in Maryland. In one of his last letters (17 Mar. 1865), from Smithfield, N.C., DuBose responds to news of General Sherman's march through South Carolina: "So far I know I am the only member of the brigade who has heard directly from S.C. since the passage of the enemy...The heartlessness and vandalism of those wretches surpasses all my expectations."