21st Virginia Cavalry & CSA War Department - NEW

Item CON-11852

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 1 page, written in period ink.


Confederate States of America
War Department
Richmond, Virginia
 
March 19, 1863
 
My Dear Peters,
 
I hasten to reply to your letter, lest you may be put to inconvenience by delay.
 
I would do for you whatever were possible for me to do for any man, but in this case, I am powerless to aid you. The Secretary of War, James A. Sedona, will make no special order for the reorganization of your regiment, Unless a plan, official statement, and application, endorsed and recommended by General Albert Gallatin Jenkins, if intended for his command, or forwarded regularly through some other general officer commanding, I do not know what course will be adopted in regard to the late state line, and consequently do not know what more particular directions to give you, but simply the general rule of correspondence, which the present secretary rigidly requires, especially in regard to all proposed military organizations. You told me nothing about yourself. I hope you are recovered of your late mishap. Supposing, from your note, that you are with family, what I am compelled to dispense, without hope of better things, the comfortable delights of husband and father in the midst of your own household.
 
With ever sincere regard, 
 
Your friend, 
 
Edward S. Joynes
 
Taliaferro has lately been here, looking very well, and I have lately heard that D. and Miss Julie Walsh are still in the land of the living.


Note:

Edward S. Joynes IV, In an official letter dated March 19th, 1863, refuse the implied request of Colonel William E. Peters to reorganize his infantry regiment into a cavalry unit. Peters was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 45th Virginia Infantry on November 14^th 1861, but was not reelected by his own troops. He then took control of the Second Virginia State Line and petitioned for reorganization, a request denied by Joynes under authority granted to him by James A. Seddon, Secretary of War.
 
Peters was successful in organizing the 21st Virginia Cavalry on August 23rd, 1863, about four months after petitioning the War Department office through his friend, Joynes. In his letter of rejection, Joynes tried to soothe the colonel's ardent feelings by reminiscing about family matters.
 
Both Joynes and Peters were professors and continued their academic careers after the war. Joynes at Washington College in the University of South Carolina, and Peters at the University of Virginia and Emory & Henry College.
 
Following the war, Joynes had a distinguished career as professor of languages at Washington College, where he enjoyed a close, if sometimes strained, relationship with President Robert E. Lee. Joynes eventually migrated to the University of South Carolina and published a number of short studies dealing with languages and philosophical discourse.