1862 Memphis, TN - Remarkable Confederate Woman Letter HUSBAND DEAD - Content !!

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
CIVIL WAR LETTER - Written Confederate Woman in Memphis, TN
This remarkable Confederate letter was written by 37 year-old Mary A. Crandall (1825-Aft1870), the wife of Thomas Griswold Crandall (1819-1860) of Memphis, Tennessee. Thomas was the son of Isaac Crandall (1791-1842) and Charlotte Griswold Bagley (1795-1868) of Chenango county, New York. Thomas had a couple of siblings mentioned in this letter—Welch Crandall (1821-1882) and Giles Griswold Crandall (1838-1925).
We learn from the letter that Mary has heard that her husband Thomas was dead. An article appearing in the
Times-Picayune
(New Orleans) on 9 May 1856, reveals that Thomas was embroiled in a scheme to forge a letter of credit for ,000 and used it to defraud the Planter’s Bank of Tennessee out of ,000. Thomas and his co-conspirator, Jeremiah Baldwin, fled from justice but Baldwin was taken into custody and sent to prison. Thomas was reported by a Boston newspaper to have been arrested in New York “but has mysteriously disappeared.” A family record for Thomas on Ancestry.com gives his death date as 20 April 1860 but provides no source. Thomas had previously made the overland trip to California in 1849; perhaps that is where he died.
Mary mentions her 5 year-old son Matthew Crandall in this letter. Mary’s maiden name isn’t known. She may have been born in Kentucky.
Transcription
Memphis [Tennessee]
September 12th [1862]
Dear Mother, I thought I would write & let you know that I am still in the land of the living & also in the city of Feds. But whether they will let me live my time out remains to be told. I was doing a nice little business, had a little furnishing store, made up children’s clothing &c., If the war had not been, I could have kept four or five girls employed.
“I told them they might arrest me & keep me in prison until the maggots drew me through the key hole before I would take the oath.”
— Mary A. Crandall, Memphis, TN, 1862
After the Federals came, they commenced rooting out the Secesh places. Found out I had made a number of Southern flags [and] told me if I should take the oath I might continue the business. I told them they might arrest me & keep me in prison until the maggots drew me through the key hole before I would take the oath. I told them the South was my home and that I should do what I could to help her gain her independence.
Of course they took what little stock I had and confiscated it but I don’t grieve about it as long as I have my health, I can get along. I am now with a friend that has a large boarding house. She has given me the charge of it so I am getting along.
You know nothing of the sufferings I have seen in Memphis. But a person gets used to such scenes. After the Battle of Shiloh—the Confederates had the possession of this place then—the wounded were brought here, some two thousand. There were three large hospitals. The ladies of Memphis turned out nursing. Some days there would be twenty-five and thirty die.
The Federals have now about eighteen hundred sick. I do not know what you all think, but let me tell you the North may overpower the South, but they can [never] subjugate. Has Welch joined the army? I have not heard from Giles for a long time. I want to ask a favor of you. I want you to send me one of Thomas’s daguerreotypes—either yours or Welch’s—the one you think is the best. I want to get get it copied. You pay the postage on it and whatever it is, I will send you the same in stamps for what change we have is paper & would not pass with you. I want to keep for Matt. My friends say I am a fool to think that [my husband] Thomas is dead. One gentleman says he could swear he saw him in California last summer. I don’t pay any attention to what they say for I don’t think the boy would have written any such thing to me had it not been the case.
You must write soon as you receive this. Matt is growing finely [and] is considered one of the best boys in Memphis. If you send the daguerreotype, direct to M. A. Crandall, Memphis, Care of the Post Master.
Write me all the news. I will return the daguerreotype soon as I am done with it. — M. A. Crandall
Tell Jane to write & Clara. My respect to Welch’s family. Do you know anything of Emily? Where she is?
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