American Civil War Letters - February 5, 1864 - Recovery, Prayer Meetings, The Sensitive Holy Spirit
I do not know but [you] will get tired reading my long letter, but when I am lonesome I write.
This letter shows how important faith was to Marcia Grennell and her husband - and what it meant to the community as a whole during this struggle. Northerners volunteered to fight in this war because they truly believed it was what God wanted them to do. "It seems as though Christians were waking up."
Only one death in this one. Poor Emily Arms. "Death visits that family often." And I thought my family had troubles!
Springfield Feb 5 1864
My Dear Husband
I had the great happiness to get a letter from you. You did not say whether your cough was cured or not. I hope it will soon be well.
Mr Dickinson was teacher since I left school. Aunt Tower was well acquainted with him. She and Jane visited here yesterday.
Mrs Dr Knight and Mrs T visited aunt Betsey to day, she (Mrs Knight) says she knows him well, they all think you will enjoy his society. Aunt T says he is a quiet man, just the man for you. He boarded with her a few days.
I think George has done very well so far. Frank Grout is here to stay all knight (without the k) with him.
Uncle Stoddard has been in here. He says he will help me all he can. He thinks I was very lucky to get my wood as I have, for it is his opinion some will have hard work to get it at any price.
About 70 people went to Chester yesterday to a ride, and took dinner, but I was better off at home.
The Methodist people have had a protracted meeting. They have a prayer meeting every evening. Our people have had four this week, but I have not dared to go out.
I am in hopes to go to church Sunday, and I mean to go to the prayer meetings soon if I continue to improve, but I am unwell so much that aunt Theoda says I have got to be extra careful and not do much, or at least anything hard, and I shall come out well.
6
If your life and health can be granted, and you returned to me again, I shall feel that I am blest.
Feb 7 Sunday
I have been to church to day - the first time I have been since I was sick. Mr Man is an active Christian, yet I do not call him a great preacher. He wears glasses, and the first sight reminded me of Mr Giddings - but he is not as interesting a speaker. More like Mr Richard.
But he prays when he visits people. His prayers are excellent.
We are to have a meeting Tuesday afternoon and evening. Friday our church with the Methodist are invited up to the North Village to hold a union meeting. Next week one is to be held at our house, week after at the Methodist.
It seems as though Christians were waking up.
I went into the Sabbath school and into Mr Lovels class. He is an interesting teacher, for he has the command of language and understands his subject. I think he was glad to have me come in. He said so, at any rate.
His class was full.
The minister came in and made some very familiar remarks. He can talk to children easily. I should think he possessed many very excellent qualities. He says he loves to be in the work.
Little Daniel and his wife and aunt Theoda were at church, and I was introduced to the bride. She is very pretty.
Mr Whitcomb told me this morning that you had been under fire, but I need not worry, for all was safe. I knew that the rebels had been pretty near, but did not think that you could be one of those called out to meet them. But the idea that you are to escape active service this winter has vanished.
I think you are in the midst of the strife but I hope you will be able to do much good, and "if your life is given for your country, may it not be in vain, but may God spare it," is my constant prayer, The Lord's will be done.
Have been to meeting this evening. It was monthly concert. The religious information was confined to revivals, and commenced with a report from a meeting at the North Village. Last eve Den Lewis said he should think as many as 40 spoke. 3 young men expressed their determination to serve the Lord & usually worship with us. I do not know who they were.
I hope the spirit of God is among us. We have not had so full a meeting for a long time, when I have been. Prof. Bowers spoke so easy, and so to the point. He feels renewed. His happiness is greater than when first converted, but the same kind. Is it not glorious? The war will soon close if we as a people turn to the Lord.
Mr Whitcomb made some remarks: he said it was his prayer to God that pure and un-defiled religion may be revived in all our beloved land, among the rebels, - yes, he said among the rebels (for what would induce them to lay down their arms so quickly) - in our army, and at home, among the young especially. A prayer we could all join in.
Your seat and Dea. Davidson's vacant. Mr Chickering's filled by another made me feel sad.
There was one thought expressed by the minister, which I think very forcible. The Spirit of God is a person, a very sensitive person, and we must be very careful not to grieve Him away, not to quench the influence of Spirit.
He illustrated by saying, what would be the effect upon one whose acquaintance we had just formed, one who was able and anxious to do us good, to sit and mind nothing about him or go to sleep while he was talking to us, [and] never speak in his favor? Such indifference must grieve him.
It is a solemn thought. It does not take a great thing to resist the Holy Spirit.
Emily Arms was brought home Saturday. Dead. Her funeral will be Monday, I suppose. Death visits that family often.
Feb 9
I have just received your letter ending Feb 1st. It is probable that you saw something of war if you did not feel it in your own person.
How anxious I feel, not knowing but the next intelligence I get may be that you're fallen in battle or wounded. But the lord is as near there as any where, and you have made him your choice. I hope you will be as a city set on a hill so that others seeing your good works may be lead to glorify God. I hope your example will be a restraint upon those men with you.
Who is your Capt.? I hope he will find out your character and give you something to do besides carrying a gun.
I have been to a church prayer meeting this aftenoon. A good deal of feeling was manifested. Mr Tenney attempted to speak, but could not restrain his emotion and sat down; but afterwords spoke, and you know he says something when he speaks - he is all engaged.
Deacon Lewis and Steel, also, Uncle Stoddard and wife come out to the evening meeting.
There is a prayer meeting this evening. Sarah and Abbie have gone. They were invited to spend the evening away, but at my request they went to the meeting. I hope it may be a benefit to them. I want you to pray particularly for them.
I have some good news to write. Aunt Hawkins told me that A. A. told the minister she had a hope, that she had been trying to be a Christian for some time.
The two young men Deacon Lewis mentioned were the young Burbank and Lewis, his sister's husband.
Aunt Betsey wishes to be remembered very affectionately to you. We are all well. I do not know but [you] will get tired reading my long letter, but when I am lonesome I write.
Good by my very dear Husband.
From your wife,
M S Grennell
This is a transcription of a letter that my great-great-great grandmother sent to her husband during his service in the American Civil War. It was written with minimal punctuation, so I have made regular edits for readability while keeping the content of the letter as close to the source as possible.
Where archaic and mis-spellings do not hinder understanding, I have transcribed them as written.
You can click on the original letters to see a high resolution scan for comparison.
I have dozens of letters from Marcia Spencer Grinnell to her husband Abel from this period, and will continue to share them as time and interest permit. The letters make for fascinating reading, and provide an intimate look into domestic life at the time of this conflict.
CLICK HERE to read more letters from Marcia Spencer Grinnell and her family during the civil war. I'll be sorting the links by date as I add them.
Or CLICK HERE for a complete catalog of my work on Steemit, so far.
This are very cool! Where did you find them? Has your family passed them down through the years? From looking at the original scans, it looks like this was tough to transcribe! Great post (:
Thank you for reading.
They were sorely neglected in a storage area of my grandmother's place. She'd cut the stamps off them and then chucked them all into a shoe-box!
My grandmother was an only child, but all her ancestors had big families with lots of kids, so it's rather miraculous that they wound up with us.
Transcribing is tough, but it's getting easier with practice! After struggling over the first letter with a magnifying glass, I realized I could just enlarge the scan on my big monitor. Getting it up to 4x original size makes a huge difference!
Man...I love trying to gleam a feeling of what Marcia's world was like through these Winston. It's pretty trippy...
Do you know what she meant by this line?
I don't know much about civil war history actually, but my father's family is from Mississippi and he loves to learn about it.
It's interesting that she believes acceptance of god would lead the south to give up the war. Was there a very big religious split between the two sides? I had always thought both were pretty christian?
Methodists are christians too yes? What does she mean here by 'our people'?
Thanks Winston for sharing these letters with us...I love the format too.
Thank you. I'm working out the format as I go, but I think I've found something that works.
I think "The Christians waking up" means that people are going to church more than they used to, attending all kinds of services. I'm not sure exactly what church the Grennells went to (I'm hoping I can figure this out with more letters) but I think Marcia sees the Methodists as another branch of the same tree. "Our people" most likely means her own congregation. The two congregations are clearly friendly, as one of the Methodists has come to her church to report on attendance and worship there.
I wish I knew more about the religious beliefs of the southerners. I did find this quote here
This seems to imply that religious communities Virginia were fragmenting as a result of the conflict, while I see signs of renewed faith and agreement up in Vermont.
Got it! Thats helpful, thankyou Winston.
good