This letter is regarding: Civil War
Status: Ready to be proof read
Pages: 4
From: Surgeon S. Hyram Plumb
To: John W. McFadden, Esq.
Others mentioned: Major General Benjamin Butler
Document Date: 1865 January 1
Where written: Washington ,D.C.
Headquarters 1st Brig.
Jan 1st 1865
John W. McFadden
Sterling
My dear Friend,
Allow me to tender you the “compliments of the season” and not only that but to wish you yet very many years enjoyment of a virtuous and vigorous life.
To be able to look back upon an active & well spent life, while slowly ripening and mellowing by the frosts & sunshine of age must constitute of conditions of calm & heartfelt satisfaction., second only to the immortal felicity to which it is the prelude, may that pleasure long be yours, and the great future which it so well foreshadows you sure inheritance.
Be assured Sir, your many acts of kindness and confidence in me will be ever most warmly cherished. Do not consider this mere sentimentality or affectation on my part, but only a frank expression of these feelings which I take pleasure in keeping warm, and in sometimes expressing.
About the 10th of Dec. & again last night we have a slight falls of snow, just enough to whiten the ground with two or three cold days with each storm. With these exceptions, the weather here has been mild and pleasant. With us at home, we have in winter many cloudy days when it does not actually storm here all winter. When not actually storming, we have a succession of bright, sunny, beautiful days. I do like this climate and if I did not have a family who are not acclimated here as I am, I really think I would never return to our cold, cloudy climate to live, but those family ties will no doubt bring me back to remain “when this cruel war is over” if not before.
But, I do think that we are now seeing the “beginning of the end” of this struggle and that 1865 will see National unity and peace fully established. Butlers great Wilmington expedition has been a stupendous fizzle, but fortunately he did nothing & consequently lost nothing. If the expedition have the effect to lay him with the other fossils up on the shelf in the Museum of Natural history, it would not have been in vain. This war was a great iconoclast. It has broken many popular fools and dissipated many popular fallacies.
Do you yet find any chance to dispose of my mill? I am still anxious to sell it. If not sold, I wish you would rent the house and garden for me. If you can compensate yourself out of the rent, I wish you would do so. If you cannot, I will cheerfully pay for any trouble you may have.
But, if I can not sell that, I have too much invested in it & the property is really too valuable to leave or give away. And I have lately been thinking that rather than to practically abandon that, I have better invest some two thousand dollars more or less in that vicinity, if there is a chance to get some good bargain in a farm. I would not be limited to that amount precisely if a good chance should turn up. If in a location where I would wish to live, I should want buildings which would be first class for that town. if in a place where I would not wish to live, I should prefer cheaper buildings, but productive land, for I do not intend in any event to give up the practice of my profession. I am wedded to that for life & intend to live & die in the harness.
Pardon me Sir if I am asking too many questions or troubling you too much, but I should be glad to hear from you as soon as convenient.
Please remember me most kindly to your brother Benjamin and to John C. Also to your good wife. And believe me sir,
………………..Very truly your friend
………………..& obedient servant
………………..S. Hiram Plumb
My correct address is:
……………….Surgeon S. Hiram Plumb
……………….Headquarters 1st Brig.
……………….2nd Div., 2nd Corps
……………….Washington, DC
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Source: McArthur Family Archive
Thank you to Pat Ridgeway for transcribing this letter!